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Ashambu laughingthrush
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Leiothrichidae
Genus:	Montecincla
Species:	M. meridionalis
Binomial name
Montecincla meridionalis (Blanford, 1880)
Synonyms
Montecincla meridionale

The Ashambu laughingthrush or Travancore laughingthrush (Montecincla meridionalis) is a species of bird in the family Leiothrichidae. It is found in the Western Ghats in southern Kerala and southern Tamil Nadu. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the grey-breasted laughingthrush. It is closely related to the Palani laughingthrush and can be differentiated from it by its very short white brow that stops before the eye.

The species is found in the high hills and is part of a complex of several species which are thought to have speciated by being isolated in the cool tops of the higher hills of southern India as the climate became warmer. Earlier included in other genera, they were placed in a newly established genus in 2017.

References

1. BirdLife International (2016). "Montecincla meridionalis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T103874754A104204024. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T103874754A104204024.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
2. Robin, V.V.; Vishnudas, C. K.; Gupta, Pooja; Rheindt, Frank E.; Hooper, Daniel M.; Ramakrishnan, Uma; Reddy, Sushma (2017). "Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (1): 31. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0882-6. PMC 5259981. PMID 28114902.
3. Praveen, J.; P.O. Nameer (2012). ". Strophocincla laughingthrushes of south India: a case for allopatric speciation and impact on their conservation". Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 109: 46–52.

• IUCN Red List vulnerable species
• Montecincla
• Birds described in 1880