• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note

Trochalopteron fairbanki, T. meridionale, T. jerdoni and T. cachinnans have been moved to the new genus Montecincla after they were found to be sister to a clade composed of Heterophasia, Minla, Actinodura, Leiothrix, Liocichla and Crocias (Robin et al. 2017). They have also received new common names, and are listed as Palani Chilappan Montecincla fairbanki, Ashambu Chilappan M. meridionalis, Banasura Chilappan M. jerdoni and Nilgiri Chilappan M. cachinnans.

T. fairbanki and T. meridionale (del Hoyo and Collar 2016) were previously lumped as Strophocincla fairbanki following Rasmussen and Anderton (2005).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A., Fishpool, L.D.C., Boesman, P. and Kirwan, G.M. 2016. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 2: Passerines. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2019. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 4. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v4_Dec19.zip.
Robin, V. V., Vishnudas, C. K., Gupta, P., Rheindt, F. E., Hooper, D. M., Ramakrishnan, U., & Reddy, S. 2017. Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India. BMC evolutionary biology, 17(1): 31.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Vulnerable	B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)
2016	Vulnerable	C2a(ii)
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Area of Occupancy (breeding/resident)	380 km2
Number of locations	6-20	-
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	10000-13000 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2016
Population trend	decreasing	poor	suspected	-
Generation length	6.05 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	4-5	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: A potential estimate of 5,806 pairs has been made (Vivek Chandran A. in litt. 2016), which is provisionally accepted here (set to a broader set of bounds of 10,000-13,000 to incorporate uncertainty) .

Trend justification: Presumably declined from historical baselines given the significant removal of habitat from within its range (see Reddy et al. [2016] for summary of forest cover changes in the Western Ghats between 1920 and 2013). There are no monitoring data from which to derive a current trend for this species, although it is precautionarily suspected to be declining, albeit at a slow rate. Habitat loss and degradation has been very slow to negligible over the past decade (2013–2023) according to remote sensing data (Global Forest Watch 2023, based on data from Hansen et al. [2013] and methods disclosed therein), and this species is evidently tolerant of some habitat modifications, occurring also in scrub and plantations (del Hoyo et al. 2020, eBird 2023).

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
India	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
India	Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve
India	Muthukuzhi
India	Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	marginal	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude	marginal	resident
Altitude	1200 - 2135 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Gathering terrestrial plants - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Climate change & severe weather	Habitat shifting & alteration	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Unknown		Whole (>90%)		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Indirect ecosystem effects, Ecosystem degradation

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Ashambu Chilappan Montecincla meridionalis. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/ashambu-chilappan-montecincla-meridionalis on 24/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 24/12/2024.