The Laughingthrush's Joke

Pics : 1-6 : White Throated laughingthrush : Sattal, Uttarakhand | Pics : 7-9 : Streaked Laughingthrush : Sattal, Uttarakhand | Pics : 10-12 : Striated Laughingthrush : Pangot, Uttarakhand

They actually never laugh and aren’t anything like a thrush. They don’t even sound like they are laughing. They do make a ruckus vocally but they’re way bigger, eat insects and don’t feed on the ground like thrushes. If anything, they’re closer to Babblers to look at. So how the hell did such a huge family of birds get a nonsensical name?

My vote to what happened here goes to proxy. The Wayanard laughing thrush was named by Thomas Jerdon in 1839 as Crateropus Delesserti, to honour Adolphe Delessert who had collected specimens from near Kotagiri in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Now Jerdon, was in the habit of naming stuff he saw after himself, see, like Jerdon's baza, Jerdon's leafbird, Jerdon's bushlark, Jerdon's nightjar, Jerdon's babbler, and Jerdon's bush chat. He gave Delserrt credit based on his records and probably specimens that weren’t living I recon given that Jerdon was British and Delserrt, French. Jerdon had initially named the Nilgiri Laughingthrush, “The White-Browed Babbler” in 1839 as well and had described it as Crateropus Cachinnaus - “The Laughingthrush of the Neilgherries". Laughingthrush, I recon just stuck. Whole confusion could have been avoided if he had just called them cackler or something that fit . This joke is on us and the birds would actually be laughing if they knew how silly we have been in our hurry to get published.

The scientific name however is Leiothrichidae and this diverse family has many species like minias, babblers, cutias, barwings, and sibias. There are about 71 species with the moniker “laughingthrush” attached to their name.

The three kinds of laughingthrushes I’ve seen seem to share size as the most common factor. Being mid sized, they take their time and that gives you time to set up your shots. I was amazed at the neon ring like eyes and santa claus beard like throat of the white throated variety. They’re beautiful and confident birds.(Pics : 1 – 6) That same evening, I caught one of the streaked kind negotiating a jump without flying to get past an obstacle. He hopped across a branch of thorns (Pics : 7-9). I swear he seemed pretty happy with himself on having pulled it off without flapping his wings. Just look at that proud stance after landing (Pic : 9). The striated ones, (Pics : 10 -12) were just so gorgeous to look at in every aspect. The red, brown eyes, crest, uff.

These guys appear in mixed flocks apparently and have weak flight making them beautiful residents of many woodlands in Asia which I definitely plan to visit to see more of them.