Rufous-necked Laughingthrush, Bhutan

The rufous-necked laughingthrush (Pterorhinus ruficollis) is a bird species in the laughingthrush family, Leiothrichidae. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. Rufous-necked laughingthrush generally feed on insects but have generalist bills and can feed on seeds molluscs and berries as well. Due to this generalist feeding behavior food sources are not as difficult to come by for these laughingthrushes as they are for specialists. The rufous-necked laughingthrush as its name implies has a rustic color around its neck. overall the bird is grey with a black face and its rufous neck. Due to the fact that they are non migratory birds this means that they molt very slowly which means that they look the same as young birds than as older birds. The rufous-necked laughingthrush looks very similar to a rufous-cheeked laughinthrush yet the regions where both species are found are completely different

The rufous-necked laughingthrush is found in the subtropical or tropical moist forests from Nepal to China extending down into Myanmar. It is a non migratory songbird which means it spends its entire life in the same location or habitat for both reproductive and non reproductive periods. Some populations are found in isolated regions of Nepal likely something that happened during the formation of the mountain ranges in the region. The species is commonly found in all of its native ranges. It is classified as least concern by IUCN.