Streaked laughingthrush: Trochalopteron lineatus

Streaked laughingthrush
Trochalapteron lineatus

Streaked laughingthrush
Trochalapteron lineatus

Streaked laughingthrush: Trochalapteron lineatus

Age: Adult

IUCN Status: Least Concern

Sighted at: Chanfi and Pangot, Distt.Nainital, Uttarakhand, India.

Date: 3.4.2015 and 4.4.2015

It’s a small bird and this species is limited to eastern Himalayas and Uttarakhand. Earlier it was part of four to five subspecies but they have been reclassified.

Key identifying features are:

1)      Small passerine abut 15-20 cms in size.

2)   Fine dark streaking on crow and nape.

3)   Fine white streaking on mantle and underparts.

4)   Greyish crown and nape.

5)    Rufous ear-coverts.

6)   Grey-tipped olive-brown tail with diffuse black subterminal band on outer feathers.

7)    Grey underparts

8)   Rufous-brown wings.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom	-	Animalia
Phylum	-	Chordata
Class	-	Aves
Order	-	Passeriformes
Family	-	Leiothrichidae
Genus	-	Trochalepteron
Species	-	lineatus

 

Photographed at Chanfi and Pangot, Distt. Nainital, Uttarakhand, India, on 3^rd and 4^th  April, 2015, using a Nikon D5100 camera and Tamron 150-600 mm lens.

 

© Prashant V Tenjarla

Another hot summer noon, and yet another thin stream between tall sun-baked mud banks. There's a bridge nearby. Ideal habitat for Bank mynas and Wire-tailed swallows. I stopped to check, and sure enough, I found them both. A flock of Bank mynas living in burrows in the small mud mountains lining the canal and a family of Wire-tailed swallows beneath the bridge. The sleepy nothingness of nowhere wasn't without life.

Smaller than Common myna, slate-grey plumage, black head and a black frontal crest, orange-red orbital patch, orange bill, red iris, orange-buff patch at base of primaries and underwings coverts, orange-yellow feet and orange-buff tip of tail.

I thought a habitat shot would be in order. Why don't you move on mate? Not too welcoming, are they? By the way, both genders look similar.

Another hot summer noon, and yet another thin stream between tall sun-baked mud banks. There's a bridge nearby. Ideal habitat for Bank mynas and Wire-tailed swallows. I stopped to check, and sure enough, I found them both. A flock of Bank mynas living in burrows in the small mud mountains lining the canal and a family of Wire-tailed swallows beneath the bridge. The sleepy nothingness of nowhere wasn't without life.

Smaller than Common myna, slate-grey plumage, black head and a black frontal crest, orange-red orbital patch, orange bill, red iris, orange-buff patch at base of primaries and underwings coverts, orange-yellow feet and orange-buff tip of tail.

I thought a habitat shot would be in order. Why don't you move on mate? Not too welcoming, are they? By the way, both genders look similar.

Another hot summer noon, and yet another thin stream between tall sun-baked mud banks. There's a bridge nearby. Ideal habitat for Bank mynas and Wire-tailed swallows. I stopped to check, and sure enough, I found them both. A flock of Bank mynas living in burrows in the small mud mountains lining the canal and a family of Wire-tailed swallows beneath the bridge. The sleepy nothingness of nowhere wasn't without life.

Smaller than Common myna, slate-grey plumage, black head and a black frontal crest, orange-red orbital patch, orange bill, red iris, orange-buff patch at base of primaries and underwings coverts, orange-yellow feet and orange-buff tip of tail.

I thought a habitat shot would be in order. Why don't you move on mate? Not too welcoming, are they? By the way, both genders look similar.