Blue-winged Laughingthrush Trochalopteron squamatum Scientific name definitions

22–25 cm; 70–84 g. Robust, medium-sized, dark-scaled laughing­thrush with black crownstripe, whitish eyes, rusty and blue-white wingpanels and rusty-tipped tail. Male has lores and feathering around eye greyish-buff under broad black lateral crownstripe, body otherwise ochrous-tinged olive-brown with narrow blackish scaling, bolder on lower upperparts , vague grey tinge on head, scaling weakening and disappearing on lower underparts, where colour shades to earthier dull chestnut, also on uppertail-coverts; flight-feathers and tail mostly blackish, tail with narrow rufous-chestnut tips, wing with rufous-chestnut greater coverts and outer fringes of secondaries, blackish primary coverts, silvery-blue outer fringes of primaries; iris white; bill dark brown; legs brownish-flesh to dark horn. Female is like male, but more rufescent on face, back and underparts, flight-feathers and tail dark brown where male blackish. Juvenile is like female but more rufescent, with very weak scaling above and none below, weak supercilium, bill mainly pale, eyes brown.

Insects , berries, fruits and seeds. Usually found in pairs or in small family parties, occasionally singly; in Bhutan, may occur in small flocks of up to ten individuals in Jan–Apr. Keeps close to ground in dense cover; very skulking.

Song  consists of thin, rather high-pitched rising whistles, of two main types. First type (perhaps male) “pwuuuuu-wit”, “piuuuuu-witchi”, “pwiiieeu-wit”, “weeuwiiiii-it” and “chwiiiee-iwi” etc. (with stressed end note), and second type (perhaps female) more mournful, less high-pitched “pwiiiieeu”, “pwiiiiiu”, “wiiiiiu” or wheezy “phwiiiiu”; first two of each type have been heard linked in duets. Songs of first type described also as a striking, rich wolf-whistle, “whééóóówhééet!” (upslurred and then downslurred at very beginning, rest strongly upslurred), with simpler and also more complex variants. Calls include fairly short subdued buzzy “jrrrrr-rrr-rrr…” and harsh, rather liquid, quite buzzy “cher-cherrrru” or “jo-jorrrru”; also as complaining, buzzy “(bzzz-)jzrrt-jzrrt-jzrrt” (downslurred notes), often in short bursts, and sometimes ending with prolonged, descending musical, hollow churring, “chrt-chr’rí’rí’rí’ew”.