Palani Laughingthrush

Open encyclopedia reference

The Palani laughingthrush (Montecincla fairbanki) is a species of laughingthrush endemic to the hills of the Western Ghats south of the Palghat Gap in Southern India. Found in the high montane forests, this grey bibbed, rufous bellied bird with a prominent dark eyestripe and broad white brow was grouped along with the grey-breasted subspecies of the black-chinned laughingthrush and known as the grey-breasted laughingthrush. This species is found in the Palni Hills while another closely related form, the Ashambu laughingthrush (Montecincla meridionalis) with a shorter white brow is found in the high hills south of the Achankovil Gap and was treated as a subspecies. The two forms were together formerly treated as the Kerala laughingthrush.

Wikipedia contributors, Palani laughingthrush; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T07:49:47.525722+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Montecincla fairbanki (Blanford, 1869)

Name authority

(Blanford, 1869)

Common name

Palani Laughingthrush

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Leiothrichidae

Genus

Montecincla

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. familyLeiothrichidae Swainson, 1832
11. genusMontecincla Robin, Vishnudas, Gupta, Rheindt, Hooper, Ramakrishnan & Reddy, 2017
12. speciesMontecincla fairbanki (Blanford, 1869)

Close classified relatives

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

Browse 113 records assigned to Leiothrichidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

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=1282060 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. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

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:QLCS9. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.