Taiwan Hwamei
Encyclopedia
The Taiwan Hwamei is a passerine
bird
in the Old World babbler
family, Timaliidae. It is endemic
to the island of Taiwan
. It was formerly regarded as a subspecies
of the Chinese Hwamei
(Leucodioptron canorum) but has recently been split as a separate species. It is estimated to have diverged from the Chinese Hwamei about 1.5 million years ago. The two were formerly placed in the genus
Garrulax with the other laughingthrush
es but have recently been moved to a new genus Leucodioptron.
It is about 24 centimetres long. It is mainly grey-brown with heavy streaks on the crown, nape and back and fine streaks on much of the underparts. It lacks the white eye-markings of the Chinese Hwamei which is also more rufous in colour and less heavily streaked. The whistling song
is long, melodious and varied.
It inhabits secondary woodland
in the foothills and lower mountains up to 1,200 metres above sea-level. It forages alone, in pairs or in small groups, searching amongst the understorey for insects and seeds.
It has a declining population of 1-10,000 individuals and is classified as a Near Threatened
species by Birdlife International
. Habitat loss may affect its numbers but the main threat is hybridization with introduced
populations of the Chinese Hwamei.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
in the Old World babbler
Old World babbler
The Old World babblers or timaliids are a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent...
family, Timaliidae. It is endemic
Endemism in birds
An endemic bird area is a region of the world that contains two or more restricted-range species, while a "secondary area" contains one or more restricted-range species. Both terms were devised by Birdlife International....
to the island of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. It was formerly regarded as a subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
of the Chinese Hwamei
Chinese Hwamei
The Chinese Hwamei or Melodious Laughingthrush is a passerine bird of eastern Asia in the Old World babbler family, Timaliidae. The name "Hwamei" comes from the Chinese 画眉 and means "painted eyebrow" referring to the distinctive marking around the bird's eyes...
(Leucodioptron canorum) but has recently been split as a separate species. It is estimated to have diverged from the Chinese Hwamei about 1.5 million years ago. The two were formerly placed in the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Garrulax with the other laughingthrush
Laughingthrush
The Laughingthrushes are the genus Garrulax of the large Old World babbler family of passerine birds. They occur in tropical Asia, with the greatest number of species occurring in the Himalaya and southern China....
es but have recently been moved to a new genus Leucodioptron.
It is about 24 centimetres long. It is mainly grey-brown with heavy streaks on the crown, nape and back and fine streaks on much of the underparts. It lacks the white eye-markings of the Chinese Hwamei which is also more rufous in colour and less heavily streaked. The whistling song
Bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
is long, melodious and varied.
It inhabits secondary woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
in the foothills and lower mountains up to 1,200 metres above sea-level. It forages alone, in pairs or in small groups, searching amongst the understorey for insects and seeds.
It has a declining population of 1-10,000 individuals and is classified as a Near Threatened
Near Threatened
Near Threatened is a conservation status assigned to species or lower taxa that may be considered threatened with extinction in the near future, although it does not currently qualify for the threatened status...
species by Birdlife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
. Habitat loss may affect its numbers but the main threat is hybridization with introduced
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
populations of the Chinese Hwamei.