Blyth's Shrike-babbler

Blyth's Shrike-babbler
male at Namdapha National Park
Conservation status
Not recognized (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	see text
Genus:	Pteruthius
Species:	P. aeralatus
Binomial name
Pteruthius aeralatus (Edward Blyth

Blyth's Shrike-babbler (Pteruthius aeralatus) is a bird species traditionally considered an aberrant Old World babbler and placed in the family Timaliidae. But as it seems, it belongs to an Asian offshoot of the American vireos and may well belong in the Vireonidae. Indeed, since long it was noted that their habits resemble those of vireos, but this was believed to be the result of convergent evolution.

female at Namdapha National Park

It is found in the eastern Himalayas, Burma through Malaysia, to Sumatra and Borneo. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the White-browed Shrike-babbler.

The common name commemorates Edward Blyth (1810–1873), English zoologist and Curator of the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

References

• BirdLife International 2004. Pteruthius flaviscapis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 27 July 2007.
• Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
• Biswas, B. 1960. A new name for the Himalayan Red-winged Babbler, Pteruthius. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 80: 106. [name for ripleyi]
• Reddy, S. 2008. Systematics and biogeography of the shrike-babblers (Pteruthius): Species limits, molecular phylogenetics, and diversification patterns across southern Asia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47: 54-72.
• Rheindt, F.E., and J.A. Eaton. 2009. Species limits in Pteruthius (Aves: Corvida) shrike-babblers: a comparison between the Biological and Phylogenetic Species Concepts. Zootaxa number 2301: 29–54.