Golden-winged Laughingthrush Trochalopteron ngoclinhense Scientific name definitions

27 cm. Medium-sized, dark grey, faintly scaly-breasted laughingthrush with chestnut crown and broad golden wing fringing. Forehead is dark grey with maroon tinge, forecrown to mid-crown dark grey with blackish streaks, mid-crown to nape chestnut, richer towards rear; upperparts dark olive-tinged grey, upperwing with greater coverts broadly tipped chestnut, primary-coverts black, flight-feather fringes golden-yellow; tail slaty, outer feathers with dull golden-ochre fringes; lores to above and below eye and chin blackish, shading to pinkish-stained darkish grey on ear-coverts and throat, to dark grey with broad mid-grey scaling on breast, and to plain dark olive-grey mid-belly and dark grey flanks, thighs and vent; iris dark brown to blackish; bill blackish horn; legs dark brown. Sexes similar. Juvenile undescribed.

Mt Ngoc Linh and Mt Ngoc Boc, in C highlands of C Annam, Vietnam.

Song undescribed. Only documented call is a double-noted, rather cat-like mewing “rr’raow­…rr’raow…” (first note short and descending, second note longer, rising, with slight downward inflection at end, and emphasized), with intervals of 2–3 seconds between each call.

ENDANGERED. Restricted-rangle species: present in Kontum Plateau Secondary Area (which now becomes a full EBA with discovery also of Actinodura sodangorum). Uncommon and local. Currently known only from Mt Ngoc Linh and Mt Ngoc Boc, on Kontum Plateau of C Vietnam, and inferred therefore to have a very small global range (estimated at 155 km²), but likely to occur also in neighbouring Attapu and Se Kong provinces of SE Laos. Population unknown. On Mt Ngoc Linh, known from Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve (Kontum province) and Ngoc Linh Proposed Nature Reserve (Quang Nam province). At former locality 13% of broadleaf evergreen forest was lost during 1976–1995, and forest at latter site is threatened by clearance for agriculture, a process that is accelerating in response to natural population growth and settlement of migrants in area.