Giant babax
Species of bird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The giant babax (Pterorhinus waddelli) is a species of bird in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae, found in northeast India and southern Tibet. It prefers the low bushes at the edge of the southern Tibetan plateau,[2] but it can adapt to both dry and cold mountain habitats.[3] It is also commonly seen around villages and monasteries, where it feeds off scraps.[2]
| Giant babax | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Leiothrichidae |
| Genus: | Pterorhinus |
| Species: | P. waddelli |
| Binomial name | |
| Pterorhinus waddelli (Dresser, 1905) | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Ianthocincla waddelli | |
Description
Threats
It is threatened by habitat loss.[2]
Diet
Breeding
Its breeding season lasts from May to July.[3] It mainly nests in willows (Salix longistamina), Rosa sericea, Populus szechuanica, Cotoneaster microphyllus, and elm trees.[3] It prefers to nest in areas dense with trees, close to water but far from human settlements.[3]
Taxonomy
The giant babax was described by the English ornithologist Henry Dresser in 1905 from a specimen collected by the British explorer Laurence Waddell in the Yarlung Tsangpo river valley in Tibet.[4] Based on the results of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the Leiothrichidae that was published in 2018, the giant babax was placed in the resurrected genus Pterorhinus.[5][6]
