The Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush (Garrulax courtoisi) is a small critically endangered bird. It is also called the Courtois’s Laughing Bird or Courtois’s Laughing Thrush.

The Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush has short, rounded wings and a long tail. It is olive-brown, with a deep blue crown and nape, and a black mask across its face. It has a yellow throat, a yellowish-grey band across its chest, and a yellow belly. Its wings are blue. Its vent, near the tail, is white, and the base of its white-tipped tail is greyish.

Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush

It measures about 23 centimetres (9 inches) tall.

The Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush is native to Jiangxi in China. It prefers lowland forests and hills near water.

It eats fruit and insects on the ground and in trees.

The Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush is a social bird and forms close family groups. It breeds in colonies, with a number of trees in close proximity to each other.

It makes a cup-shaped nest from twigs and grasses, lined with dry grass.

Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush

Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush

Blue-Crowned Laughing Thrush

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM