Garrulax canorus
Silhouette: Jiekun He · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The Chinese hwamei or melodious laughingthrush (Garrulax canorus) is a passerine bird of eastern Asia in the laughingthrush family Leiothrichidae. The name "hwamei" comes from its Chinese name huà méi, which means "painted eyebrow", referring to the distinctive marking around the bird's eyes. The species is a popular cagebird because of its attractive song.
The Chinese hwamei was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus canorus. Linnaeus specified the type locality as Bengal and China but this has been restricted to Amoy (now Xiamen) in Fujian, China. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "melodious" (from canere "to sing"). The Chinese hwamei is now one of 14 laughingthrushes placed in the genus Garrulax that was introduced in 1831 by René Lesson.
The Taiwan hwamei (G. taewanum) was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Chinese hwamei but has recently been split as a separate species. This was based... Wikipedia →
Recording0:20
China · 2025
© 维生素 · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:26
Japan · 2026
© battari · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:27
Japan · 2026
© Ryan Durand · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sendai | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Fuzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Changsha | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Zhuhai [Macau] | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Hangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Xiamen City | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 8 | Shanghai | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Tokyo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 10 | Guangzhou | 🇨🇳 China |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Beijing Wildlife Park | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Columbus Zoo and Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Shanghai Zoo | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | 无锡动物园 | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Singapore Zoo | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 7 | Virginia Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | San Antonio Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Philadelphia Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Riverbanks Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Lincoln Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 13 | Central Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Edward Youde Aviary | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chinese Hwamei sighting in Hong Kong on a given day, based on 191 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 47th most-seen of the 204 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Chinese Hwamei in Hong Kong on a given day, against under 5% in December to March, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chinese Hwamei sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
12th of 15
Of the 15 cities where we can rate Chinese Hwamei sightings, Hong Kong ranks 12th at about 10%. The best odds are in Sendai (Japan, about 70%), Fuzhou (China, about 20%) and Changsha (China, about 20%).
Same genus: Garrulax
The closest relatives of the Chinese Hwamei that you can see in Hong Kong (genus Garrulax, Typical Laughingthrushes) are Masked Laughingthrush (about 40%) and Black-throated Laughingthrush (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chinese Hwamei is recorded against all the birds logged in Hong Kong (191 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
