Giant babax
The giant babax (Pterorhinus waddelli) is a species of bird in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae, found in India and Tibet. It prefers the low bushes at the edge of the southern Tibetan plateau, and is threatened by habitat loss. A common sight around villages and monasteries, where it feeds off scraps, it is a bulky, long-tailed brown bird with a curved bill and dark streaks. Its vocalizations vary between melodic flute-like notes and harsh jabbering ones.[2]
| Giant babax | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Leiothrichidae |
| Genus: | Pterorhinus |
| Species: | P. waddelli |
| Binomial name | |
| Pterorhinus waddelli (Dresser, 1905) | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Ianthocincla waddelli | |
The giant babax was described by the English ornithologist Henry Dresser in 1905 from a specimen collected by the British explorer Laurence Waddell in the Yarlung Tsangpo river valley in Tibet.[3] Based on the results of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the Leiothrichidae that was published in 2018, the giant babax was placed in the resurrected genus Pterorhinus.[4][5]
References
- BirdLife International (2012). "Babax waddelli". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- "Giant Babax - eBird". ebird.org. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
- Dresser, Henry E. (2005). "Descriptions of three new species of birds obtained during the recent expedition to Lhasa". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1 (1): 54-55 [54 plate 4].
- Cibois, A.; Gelang, M.; Alström, P.; Pasquet, E.; Fjeldså, J.; Ericson, P.G.P.; 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. doi:10.1111/zsc.12296. S2CID 51883434.
- Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Laughingthrushes and allies". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
- 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, Vol. 12. Picathartes to Tits and Chickadees. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.