Garrulax perspicillatus
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The masked laughingthrush (Pterorhinus perspicillatus) is a species of laughingthrush found in China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Macau. It is often seen in small noisy flocks of seven. Its Chinese name qī zǐ-mèi (Chinese: 七姊妹 ) means 'seven brothers and sisters'.
The masked laughingthrush was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus perspicillatus. The specific epithet perspicillatus is Modern Latin meaning "spectacled". Gmelin based his description on "Le Merle de la Chine" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. A hand-coloured engraving by François-Nicolas Martinet was published to accompany Buffon's text. The type locality is now restricted to Xiamen (formerly Amoy) in the province of Fujian.
The masked laughingthrush was formerly placed in the genus Garrulax but following the publication of a comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the laughingthrushes in 2018, it was moved to the... Wikipedia →
Recording0:12
Hong Kong SAR China · 2025
Stephen Matthews · iNaturalist · CC0
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Hong Kong SAR China · 2019
© johnallcock · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Hong Kong SAR China · 2026
© Simon Williams · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
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More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Laughingthrush sighting in Hong Kong on a given day, based on 1,185 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 14th most-seen of the 204 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and July
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Laughingthrush in Hong Kong on a given day, against about 30% in December, the lowest month.
9th of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Masked Laughingthrush sightings, Hong Kong ranks 9th at about 40%. The best odds are in Nanjing (China, about 70%), Wuhan (China, about 70%) and Hefei (China, about 70%).
Same genus: Garrulax
The closest relatives of the Masked Laughingthrush that you can see in Hong Kong (genus Garrulax, Typical Laughingthrushes) are Black-throated Laughingthrush (about 30%) and Chinese Hwamei (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Masked Laughingthrush is recorded against all the birds logged in Hong Kong (1,185 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.
