Argya


Argya is a genus of passerine birds in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. The species are distributed across Africa and southern Asia and are typically fairly large, long-tailed birds that forage in noisy groups. Members of this genus were formerly placed in the genera Turdoides and Garrulax.

Taxonomy

Most of the species now placed in the genus Argya were previously assigned to the genus Turdoides. Following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2018, Turdoides was split and species were moved to the resurrected genus Argya that had been erected by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. The name is from the Latin argutus meaning "noisy". Lesson did not specify a type species but this was designated as the Arabian babbler by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1855.
The following cladogram showing the phylogenetic relationships between the species is based on a study by Alice Cibois and collaborators that was published in 2018. The Iraq babbler and the orange-billed babbler were not included in the study. The Afghan babbler has been split from the common babbler.

Species

The genus contains 16 species:
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Large grey babblerArgya malcolmiIndia
Ashy-headed laughingthrushArgya cinereifronsSri Lanka
Arabian babblerArgya squamicepsUnited Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and western Saudi Arabia
Fulvous babblerArgya fulvaAlgeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Tunisia.
White-throated babblerArgya gularisMyanmar.
Striated babblerArgya earleiPakistan to Myanmar.
Iraq babblerArgya altirostrisIraq and south-western Iran
Common babblerArgya caudataIndia.
Afghan babblerArgya huttonisoutheastern Iraq to south western Pakistan.
Rufous chattererArgya rubiginosaEthiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Scaly chattererArgya aylmeriEthiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania.
Yellow-billed babblerArgya affinissouthern India and Sri Lanka.
Jungle babblerArgya striataIndia
Orange-billed babblerArgya rufescensSri Lanka.
Slender-billed babblerArgya longirostrisBangladesh, Nepal, Northeast India and possibly Myanmar
Rufous babblerArgya subrufaIndia