Collared Laughingthrush Trochalopteron yersini Scientific name definitions

26–28 cm. Strikingly patterned medium-sized laughingthrush with black hood , silvery-grey ear-coverts, bright rufous underparts and hindcollar, and golden-olive wing fringing. Has bristly lores, superciliary area, crown, nape, area behind ear-coverts, chin and throat black , postocular area and ear-coverts shiny silvery grey with vague blackish streaks; nape and upper mantle, neck side, breast, upper flanks and belly bright rufous, shading to ochrous dark grey on remaining upperparts (including median wing-coverts), and to ochrous dark brown on lower flanks, thighs and vent; greater upperwing-coverts rufous-chestnut, primary coverts black, flight-feathers ochrous dark grey with outer fringes semi-reflective grey-tinged golden-olive, tail ochrous dark grey with grey-tinged golden-olive on outer fringes of feathers; iris crimson, brown or hazel; bill black; legs dark brown. Sexes similar. Juvenile is patterned as adult, but chestnut areas paler and browner, grey of back replaced by purplish-brown.

Da Lat Plateau in S Annam, Vietnam.

Understorey (usually rather dense) of primary broadleaf evergreen forest , thick regrowth in logged-over forest, scrub bordering forest; at 1500–2440 m.

No information on diet. Found in pairs or in small parties of up to eight individuals; relatively retiring. Forages low down in dense vegetation and on ground .

Song a loud, quite high-pitched, rising whistle repeated every 3–5 seconds, typically “wueeeeoo” or “u-weeeeoo” (rising in middle), “uuuu-weeoo” (rising more at start), “wiu-weeeu” (quick first note, stressed second note), or “wu-eeyou” (rising sharply at end); variants include “weeoo-wiu”, “yiuuuu-ee”, “wuuuu-ip” and “wuuuu-oo” (last two heard in duet), sometimes a shorter “u-weeaa”. Two or three birds may sing to each other. Whistles often answered antiphonally (presumably by females) with low, quite harsh, mewing “wiaaah”, “ayaaa” or “ohaaaah” (these calls sometimes uttered on their own); short, breathless “phu” may also be given antiphonally with whistles. Alarm call a series of variable, subdued, slurred, buzzy, grating, slightly rising notes, “grreet-grreet-grreet-grreet-grreet-grreet-grreet-grreet-grrr-rr” (with last 3 or so notes slurred together).

ENDANGERED. Restricted-range species: present in Da Lat Plateau EBA. Locally common in suitable habitat within its altitudinal range. Population estimated at 2500–9999 individuals and decreasing; occupied range estimated as being merely 720 km². Recorded from at least eleven localities, with post-1980 records from eight, the most important appearing to be Mt Lang Bian, Mt Bi Doup and Chu Yang Sin Nature Reserve. Da Lat Plateau currently focus for a government resettlement programme, resulting in forest degradation and fragmentation through logging, shifting agriculture, fuelwood-collecting and charcoal production; this species, however, generally occurs at elevations rather higher than those where shifting cultivation currently practised. On Mt Lang Bian, all land below 1500m is now logged or under cultivation. Species is present in Thuong Da Nhim Nature Reserve.