Bar-throated Minla

The bar-throated, or chestnut-tailed, minla, also called the bar-throated siva, is a bird of the laughingthrush and babbler family Leiothrichidae. It is found in montane forest from India to Malaysia, the nominate subspecies from central Nepal through India, southern China and Bhutan, in a range of montane forest habitats at 1,800–3,750 m. It is mainly resident but may move to lower altitudes in harsh winters, down to 1,300 m (Wikipedia, general species account).

Two to four eggs are laid in a cup of grass, bamboo leaves, lichen and birch bark. The diet varies by season; in summer it is almost exclusively insectivorous, taking beetles, caterpillars and other insects, and in the non-breeding season it joins flocks of other babblers and yuhinas, feeding from the canopy down to near the forest floor. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident and altitudinal migrant forest bird with a Moderate range of about 82,800 km² and an inconclusive long-term trend (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).