The chestnut-backed laughingthrush (''Pterorhinus nuchalis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Leiothrichidae The laughingthrushes are a family, Leiothrichidae, of Old World passerine birds. The family contains 133 species and is divided into 16 genera. The species are diverse in size and coloration. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest v ...

. It is found in

Northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...

and northern

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

. This species inhabits secondary growth, thickets, tall grasslands with scattered shrubs or dense bushes in stony scrub-covered ravines and hills, from the lowlands up to around . It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. The chestnut-backed laughingthrush was at one time placed in the genus ''

Garrulax ''Garrulax'' is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. Taxonomy The genus ''Garrulax'' was erected by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. The type species was designated in 1961 as ''Garrulax rufifrons'' ...

'' but following the publication of a comprehensive

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study in 2018, it was moved to the resurrected genus ''

Pterorhinus ''Pterorhinus'' is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. Taxonomy The genus was erected by the English zoologist Robert Swinhoe in 1868 with the plain laughingthrush (''Pterorhinus davidi'') as the type species ...

''.

References

chestnut-backed laughingthrush Birds of Myanmar Birds of Northeast India chestnut-backed laughingthrush Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Sylvioidea-stub