Blue-crowned Laughingthrush

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Blue-crowned Laughingthrush
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Timaliidae Genus: Garrulax (but see text) Species: G. courtoisi
Binomial name
Garrulax courtoisi Ménégaux, 1923
Synonyms
Garrulax galbanus courtoisi

The Blue-crowned Laughingthrush or Courtois's Laughingbird (Garrulax courtoisi) is an enigmatic species of bird in the Timaliidae family. Presently placed in the massively paraphyletic genus Garrulax, it might be among the laughingthrushes that are candidates for removal to Dryonastes. As it is altogether quite distinct from other laughingthrushes in ecology and behavior however, its taxonomic status remains to be resolved by a thorough review of the entire group.

It is endemic to China. The nominate subspecies Jianxi Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi courtoisi) was recently rediscovered; the Yunnan Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi simaoensis) has not been encountered in the wild since the type specimens were collected in 1956. It might - though this remains to be verified - exist as a self-sustaining captive population among zoos and aviculturalists however.

This bird was erroneously listed as a species of Least Concern in the 2006 IUCN Red List. Actually, it seems close to extinction at least in the wild, and its status was thus corrected to Critically Endangered 2007 Red List issue.^[1]

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^ See BirdLife International (2007a,b).

[edit] References

• BirdLife International (2004). Garrulax courtoisi. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 25 July 2007.
• BirdLife International (2007a): [ 2006-2007 Red List status changes ]. Retrieved 2007-AUG-26.
• BirdLife International (2007b): Blue-crowned Laughingthrush - BirdLife Species Factsheet. Retrieved 2007-AUG-28.