Myophonus castaneus R. G. W. Ramsay, 1880

Open encyclopedia reference

The brown-winged whistling thrush (Myophonus castaneus), also known as the Sumatran whistling thrush or chestnut-winged whistling thrush, is a passerine bird belonging to the whistling thrush genus Myophonus in the family Muscicapidae. It is endemic to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. In the past, it has often been lumped together with the Javan whistling thrush (M. glaucinus) and Bornean whistling thrush (M. borneensis) as the "Sunda whistling thrush" (M. glaucinus) but it is now often regarded as a separate species based on differences in plumage and measurements. It is about 25 centimetres long. The black bill has an average depth of 7.3 millimetres, slenderer than the bills of the Bornean and Javan whistling thrushes. The legs and feet are dark brown. The adult male has a dark blue head, breast and shoulders with the rest of the plumage being chestnut. The adult female and immature are mostly dull chestnut-brown with a blue patch on the shoulder. The Bornean and Javan whistling thrushes lack any chestnut coloration. It has a loud whistling call and a harsh grating call.

Wikipedia contributors, Brown-winged whistling thrush; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T14:02:57.051475+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Myophonus castaneus R. G. W. Ramsay, 1880

Name authority

R. G. W. Ramsay, 1880

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Muscicapidae

Genus

Myophonus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderPasseriformes
10. familyMuscicapidae Fleming, 1822
11. genusMyophonus Temminck, 1822
12. speciesMyophonus castaneus R. G. W. Ramsay, 1880

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Myophonus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 243 records assigned to Muscicapidae.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=916144 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4555K. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.