Orange-breasted Laughingthrush Garrulax annamensis Scientific name definitions

24–25 cm. Medium-sized laughingthrush with brown upperparts and flanks, blackish throat, orange-rufous supercilium and underparts with neatly black-streaked breast . Has crown to scapulars and rump, including ear-coverts and neck side, rich olive-toned brown, uppertail-coverts a shade paler, upperwing and tail a shade darker (but light-dependent); bristly lores and forehead black, this colour extending just above and below eye and contiguous with blackish submoustachial area, chin and throat; pale orange-rufous area on forehead (immediately above black) and extending as postocular supercilium; breast orange-rufous with neat black streaks (narrower and clearer than in G. merulinus), mid-belly plain orange-rufous, becoming paler on vent, with flanks and thighs rufous-brown; iris brown, orbital skin black; upper mandible blackish, lower mandible dark grey; legs dark brown to bluish-grey. Sexes similar. Juvenile apparently undescribed.

Langbian Plateau in S Annam, S Vietnam.

Undergrowth and edge of broadleaf evergreen forest, bamboo clumps, densely overgrown abandoned cultivation, treefall light-gaps in closed-canopy evergreen forest, dense secondary growth and scrub; at 915–1510 m.

Resident.

No information on diet. Forages singly, in pairs or in family groups, on or near ground; unobtrusive, shy and very skulking.

Song loud, rich and melodious, of rich musical phrases in prolonged rambling series, with much mimicry; very like that of G. merulinus.

Three specimens with regressing gonads in Mar. No other information.

Not assessed. Uncommon to locally common within very small range. Present in Thuong Da Nhim and Chu Yang Sin Nature Reserves.