Birds can be quite difficult to see, particularly in the dense undergrowth of North-east India, even if you hear them from very close, and this was the main reason why I started recording bird sounds way back in 1997. We (me and my colleague Manoj V. Nair who was working at the Wildlife Institute of India at the time) visited Blue Mountain National Park, Mizoram in March 2016. We heard a bird singing constantly in nearby bushes from early morning to evening in the bouts of duration of nearly an hour ??? close to forest rest house at about 1700m? The song was very pleasant to us and extraordinary in variety with mimicry of many species. We with so much effort to see the bird over the next two days but could not get clear view, though the bird was at times as close as about 3 meters from us. This was the time when I really appreciated the study of songs. It was only five years later that I could compare my recording with songs posted online and finally identified the recording as of Spot-breasted Laughingthrush Garrulax merulinus. I have shared the recordings with many friends and use the recording as an exemplar of how sweet and pleasing birdsong could be. Hope you will like it!
Spot-breasted Laughingthrush, Francesco Veronesi CC BY-SA 2.0 Taken in Thailand
This also raises the question why this species and some other birds are shy to this extent. This could be because of hunting pressure which seems unlikely in a national park….