China from eastern Qinghai and adjacent northern Gansu (south-eastern Qilian Shan) east to south-western Nei Monggol (Helan Shan), south to south-eastern Xizang, central Yunnan, western Guizhou, southern Ningxia, southern Shaanxi and western Hubei, and extreme north-eastern India (extreme eastern Arunachal Pradesh).
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Elliot's Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron elliotii) [XC769803]
by Dave Guo from Yubeng Village, Diqing, Yunnan, China (duet, song)
Elliot's Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron elliotii) [XC702198]
by Ding Li Yong from Laoye Shan, Datong, Qinghai, China (song)
Subspecies
Has been considered conspecific with Brown-cheeked Laughingthrush (Trochalopteron henrici), although differences considerable. Form described as "gucenense", from Chayul Valley, in Qamdo (south-eastern Xizang), has been judged to be a hybrid between these two.
Proposed subspecies prjevalskii (from eastern Qinghai and Gansu east to Hubei, south to northern Yunnan and western Guizhou) and bonvaloti (from near Lamda, Xizang) regarded as indistinguishable from birds elsewhere in range.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
prjevalskii (Menzbier, 1887) - Montane forests of south-central China (Gansu and eastern Qinghai).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet