Pterorhinus courtoisi courtoisi (Ménégaux, 1923)
Blue-crowned laughingthrush, Courtois’s laughingthrush
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Garrulax courtoisi Ménégaux, 1923; Garrulax galbanus courtoisi Ménégaux, 1923 [Berlioz, 1930]; Ianthocincla courtoisi (Ménégaux, 1923)
Conservation Status
Last wild record: 1919 (BirdLife International, 2018)
Rediscovered in the wild in: 2000 (Yuan-Hua et al., 2003)
IUCN RedList status: Critically Endangered
Distribution & Habitat
Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province, eastern China
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
Above: a Blue-crowned laughingthrush at Prague Zoo. Photo taken by Pavel Hrdlička on 22 October 2018. Released under a CC A-SA 4.0 license. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
References
Original scientific description:
Ménégaux, M. A. (1923). Description du Garrulax courtoisi nov. sp. de la Chine. Rev. Franc. Orn. 8(169): 98.
or,
Menegaux, M. A. (1923). Description du Garrulax courtoisi nov. sp. de la Chine. Bulletin du Museum D'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 29(4): 287-288.
Other references:
Berlioz, J. (1930). Revision systématique du genre Garrulax Lesson. L’Oiseau 11: 1-27, 78-105, 129-159.
BirdLife International. (2013). Garrulax courtoisi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2015.2. (http://www.iucnredlist.org). Downloaded on 04 July 2015.
BirdLife International. (2015). Species factsheet: Garrulax courtoisi. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 04/07/2015.
BirdLife International. (2018). Garrulax courtoisi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22732350A131890764. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22732350A131890764.en. Accessed on 27 March 2026.
Chen, Hao et al. (2022). Genomic signatures and evolutionary history of the endangered blue-crowned laughingthrush and other Garrulax species. BMC Biology 20: 188. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-022-01390-4
Cheng, S. and Lin, J. (2011). A survey on avian diversity in Wuyishan National Nature Reserve, Jiangxi. Chinese Journal of Zoology 46: 66-78.
Cibois, Alice, Gelang, M., Alström, P., Pasquet, E., Fjeldså, J., Ericson, P. G. P. and Olsson, U. (2018). Comprehensive phylogeny of the laughingthrushes and allies (Aves, Leiothrichidae) and a proposal for a revised taxonomy. Zoologica Scripta 47(4): 428-440. https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12296
Collar, Nigel J. (2006). A partial revision of the Asian Babblers (Timaliidae). Forktail: 85-112.
Collar, Nigel J., Gardner, L., Jeggo, D. F., Marcordes, B., Owen, A., Pagel, T., Vaidl, A., Wilkinson, R. and Wirth, R. (2012). Conservation breeding and the most threatened birds in Asia. BirdingASIA 18: 50-57.
Collar, Nigel J. and Robson, C. (2007). Family Timaliidae (babblers), pp. 70-291. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Christie, D. A. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World 12. Barcelona, Spain: Lynx Edicions.
Gleave, Rosalin A., Papworth, Sarah K., Bauman, David, Portugal, Steven J., Zhang, Weiwei, Liu, Yikang, Cao, Zhiming, Cheng, Xiaojin and Turvey, Samuel T. (2024). Can local ecological knowledge establish conservation baselines for the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush? People and Nature 6(3): 1262-1276. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10643
Hong Kong Bird Watching Society. (2011). Conservation of Blue-crowned Laughingthrush Garrulax courtoisi in Wuyuan, Jiangxi Province School Education Project in Wuyuan Final report. Hong Kong.
La Touche, J. D. D. (1923). A handbook of the birds of Eastern China. Part 1. London: Taylor and Francis.
Liu, Tao et al. (2022). Multiple lines of evidence confirm that the critically endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi) is an independent species. Avian Research 13: 100022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avrs.2022.100022
Long, A., Crosby, M. and Inskipp, T. (1994). A review of the taxonomic status of the Yellow-throated Laughingthrush Garrulax galbanus. OBC Bull. 19: 41-48.
Ouyang, Yuxuan, Yang, Lin, Cheng, Binbin, Chang, Xiao and Zhang, Weiwei. (2026). Chromosome-scale Genome Assembly of the Critically Endangered Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Pterorhinus courtoisi, Leiothrichidae). Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06951-8
Scheffers, Brett R., Yong, Ding Li, Harris, J. Berton C., Giam, Xingli and Sodhi, Navjot S. (2011). The world’s rediscovered species: back from the brink? PLoS ONE 6(7): e22531. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022531 [Supporting Information (Table S1)]
Shi, J. Z. (2017). Wuyuan Languan Zaomei (Garrulax courtoisi) fanzhi shengtai ji zhongqun shengcunli fenxi [Breeding Ecology and Population Viability Analysis of the Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi) in Wuyuan]. Master’s thesis, Northeast Forestry University.
Wilkinson, R. and Gardner, L. (2011). No laughing matter. Zooquaria: 12-13.
Wilkinson, R., He, Fen-qi, Gardner, L. and Wirth, R. (2004). A highly threatened bird - Chinese Yellow-throated Laughing thrushes in China and in zoos. International Zoo News 51: 456-469.
Wilkinson, R. and He, Fen-qi. (2010a). Conservation of Blue-crowned Laughing-thrush Garrulax courtoisi in Wuyuan, Jiangxi, and the search for 'lost' populations in Yunnan and Guanxi, China. BirdingASIA 13: 100-105.
Wilkinson, R. and He, Fen-qi. (2010b). Le garrulaxe de Courtois: conservation in situ. CEPA Magazine: 12-17.
Wilkinson, R. and He, Fen-qi. (2010). Yellow-throated Laughingthrush Garrulax galbanus and Blue-crowned Laughingthrush G. courtoisi - new observations and interpretations on their taxonomy. BirdingASIA: 73-82.
Yuan-hua, H., He, Fen-qi, Worth, R., Melville, D., Zheng, P., Xia-zhi, W., Gui-fu, W. and Zhi-yong, L. (2003). Little-known oriental bird: Courtois's Laughingthrush Garrulax galbanus courtoisi. Oriental Bird Club Bulletin 38: 35-40.
Zhang, Weiwei, Shi, Jinze, Huang, Huiqin and Liu, Tao. (2017). The impact of disturbance from photographers on the Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Garrulax courtoisi). Avian Conservation and Ecology 12(1): 15.
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