7/27/2009

Rare laughingthrush on video

In the July 2 Cage & Aviary Birds, Nick West described how aviculturists are saving the extremely rare blue-crowned laughingthrush. By coincidence, only last month, a birdwatcher filmed a flock of these lovely birds in the wild, probably for the first time. This hand-held footage (with sound!) was taken near the village of Wuyuan in south-east China - just about the only place where this incredibly rare species (here called Courtois's laughingthrush) can be found outside aviculture.