Recorded by SONY PCM M10

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bird-seen:yes

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bird-seen:yes

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Typical 3-noted song between 1500-4000Hz, and an interested 2-noted 'didi' harmonic call with main note between 3000-4500Hz.

bird-seen:no

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bird-seen:yes

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The White-whiskered Laughingthrush used to be a popular caged bird in Taiwan as they were considered to have “beautiful singing” (Avifauna of Taiwan, 2nd edition). As the birds were friendly, I heard and recorded two types of vocalisation. This is the second type of vocalization I heard and recorded, and was much longer and harder to understand. They were fast, continual calls, with both birds in the pair participating, and lasting for long periods. Often in spurts of 7-8 seconds with very short breaks of 0.5-1 second in between. They sounded like anxious calls to me and the birds were continually looking around and would intimately make a rapid wing movement (flutter the wings). Both the waveform and sonogram show the chaotic nature of these calls. A short edited call can be found here. Brazil (2009) aptly describes it as a “staccato” and suggest it occurs when the birds are alarmed. I was very near the birds when recording these types of calls (we had stopped for a British cuppa) and I could see them clearly – I could not see any danger and they had been very comfortable with us. HBW (2019) has a description of one call as a “giddy laughter’ but I am not sure they were these type calls. Note that pairs are monogamous and stay together even in non-breeding periods.

bird-seen:yes

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various contact calls of two birds recorded from only 1 m distance

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typical song

A 2-noted call between 1800-5000Hz, calling from the bushes.

bird-seen:no

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small lake at KM50 area

bird-seen:yes

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High elevation around KM50, several have identified it as this species

bird-seen:no

playback-used:no