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The Endangered Nilgiri Laughing Thrush (Male)

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  @ Coonoor, Nilgiris Dist
  Tamil Nadu, India
  26 Aug 2022

Description Credit – Birds of the World (The Cornnel Lab) & Wiki

The Nilgiri Laughing Thrush is a small bird with a very pronounced white eye-stripe, and a conspicuous white supercilium or eyebrow. The upper parts are olive-brown, while breast and belly are bright rufous. The chin is black, which is where it gets its second name “black-chinned laughingthrush”. The male and the female look similar as there is no difference in plumage. This Laughing Thrush is a species of laughingthrush endemic to and found in dense forest patches on the Nilgiri and Wayanad ranges above 1,200 mtrs and adjoining hill ranges in Peninsular India.

The bird has mostly rufous underparts, olive brown upperparts, a prominent white eyebrow and a black throat make it unmistakable. It is easily detected by its loud series of nasal call notes and can be hard to spot when it is hidden away inside a patch of dense vegetation. It forages along the forest edge singly or in small groups low in the trees and sometimes on the ground. They are active in the early morning and late afternoon and are extremely vocal. They feed on invertebrates and nectar, mostly within 3 metres off the ground in dense forests. It is a sedentary resident, inhabiting dense undergrowth and moist, shady lower story vegetation of evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, especially densely wooded ravines and forest edges, generally higher than 1,900 mtrs. Occasionally, it may occur in thick gardens, patches of natural scrub, but is absent or uncommon in Eucalyptus, tea and Acacia plantations as it mostly prefers natural forests.

The Nilgiri Laughing Thrush is a bird confined to shola forests that are a characteristic feature of the southern Western Ghats. During the last 200 years, the shola forests have seen various threats such as clear felling to convert them in to tea gardens or plantations. Invasive plant species and overgrazing are other major threats. The distribution of the species is restricted to a small area which is prone to habitat destruction and ongoing threats, IUCN has listed it as Endangered in the Red List.