Endangered
Golden-winged laughingthrush
Trochalopteron ngoclinhense
Golden-winged laughingthrush is a perching bird in the family Leiothrichidae (order Passeriformes) — Trochalopteron ngoclinhense, recorded as Endangered and tied to Vietnam.
Appearance
The plumage is predominately grey with scaling on the breast. The forehead is light grey and the crown is chestnut coloured, and the face is dark grey. On the wings the greater coverts are chestnut, primary coverts are black, and the flight feathers are golden yellow.
The golden-winged laughingthrush is a medium-sized songbird, 27 cm (11 in) in length.
Range and habitat
The golden-winged laughingthrush is endemic to area of the Kontum Massif of the southern Annamite Range in central Vietnam and southern Laos. It was originally only known from two sites in Vietnam, Mt Ngọc Linh and the nearby Mt Ngoc Boc, but it was predicted to also be present in nearby areas with the same habitat, and the species was indeed discovered in the Dong Ampham National Biodiversity Conservation Area in southern Laos in 2022. Its natural habitat is primary tropical moist evergreen montane forest, from 1,500–2,200 m (4,900–7,200 ft), where it lives in bamboo stands and the undergrowth.
Part of the range of this species is currently protected as part of the Ngoc Linh (Kon Tum) Nature Reserve, with another reserve being proposed for another part of the area.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
No information exists about its diet, but it is assumed to feed on invertebrates from the forest floor like other species in the genus. Nothing is known about their breeding behaviour, except that a male in breeding condition (enlarged gonads) was collected in May.
In crisis
It was discovered in 1996, and remains poorly studied due to its small, remote population and shy nature. The species is threatened with extinction due to habitat loss caused by deforestation. The areas it inhabits are threatened by habitat loss. Around Ngọc Linh deforestation to clear land for agriculture resulted in 13% of the evergreen forest being lost between 1976 and 1995.
Because of the small population and threats to its limited habitat the species was evaluated as being Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species on its discovery, and was reevaluated as Endangered in 2018. As part of the conservation of this species, scientists have asked birdwatchers to search suitable habitat outside its currently known range to identify new populations.
Golden-winged laughingthrush is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Golden-winged laughingthrush, Wikidata item Q27075539. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
