The grey-throated babbler (''Stachyris nigriceps'') is a species of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird in the Old World babbler family Timaliidae. It is found in

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Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

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Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

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. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

Taxonomy

The grey-throated babbler was

formally described A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

in 1844 by the English zoologist

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

under the current

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

''Stachyris nigriceps''. He specified the

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

as Nepal. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''stakhus'' meaning "ear of wheat" and ''rhis'', ''rhinos'' meaning "nostrils". The specific epithet ''nigriceps'' is from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''niger'' meaning "black" and "-ceps" meaning "-headed". Twelve

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

are recognised: * ''Stachyris nigriceps nigriceps'' Blyth, 1844 – central, east Himalayas * ''Stachyris nigriceps coltarti'' Harington, 1913 – northeast India, north Myanmar and southwest China * ''Stachyris nigriceps spadix'' Ripley, 1948 – east, south Assam (northeast India), east Bangladesh, south, southeast Myanmar and northwest, west Thailand * ''Stachyris nigriceps yunnanensis'' La Touche, 1921 – east Myanmar, north Thailand and south China to north, central Indochina * ''Stachyris nigriceps rileyi'' Chasen, 1936 – south Indochina * ''Stachyris nigriceps dipora'' Oberholser, 1922 – north, central

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

* ''Stachyris nigriceps davisoni'' Sharpe, 1892 – south Malay Peninsula * ''Stachyris nigriceps larvata'' ( Bonaparte, 1850) – Sumatra and

Lingga Island Lingga Island is the largest and most populated of the Lingga Islands, Indonesia. It has an area of . It is located south of the Riau Islands off the east coast of Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is t ...

(east of central Sumatra) * ''Stachyris nigriceps natunensis'' Hartert, EJO, 1894 – north

Natuna Islands Natuna Regency is an islands regency located in the northernmost part of the Province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. It contains at least 154 islands, of which 127 of them are reported as uninhabited. This archipelago, with a land area of 1,978.4 ...

(northwest of Borneo) * ''Stachyris nigriceps tionis''

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

& Kloss, 1927 –

Tioman Island Tioman Island () is , off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, more specifically off the east coast of Rompin District, Pahang, Malaysia. It is long and wide and has seven villages, the largest and most populous being Kampung Tekek on the ...

(off east Malay Peninsula) * ''Stachyris nigriceps hartleyi'' Chasen, 1935 – montane west Borneo * ''Stachyris nigriceps borneensis'' Sharpe, 1887 – montane north Borneo

References

*Collar, N. J. & Robson, C. 2007. Family Timaliidae (Babblers) pp. 70 – 291 in; del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. ...

'', Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Stachyris Birds of Eastern Himalaya Birds of Southeast Asia Birds described in 1844 Taxa named by Edward Blyth Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Timaliidae-stub