- Lanius excubitor
Identification
Length 22-26 cm (8½-10¼ in), weight 50-80 g
Adult
- Grey head and back
- White belly, throat, flanks and chest (flanks often faintly barred pale grey in females)
- Black wings with white patch at base of primaries
- Medium-long tail, black with white outer feathers
- Black mask on face extending to base of bill, but not over top of bill
- Distinctive stout, hooked black bill
Juvenile
- Similar to adult except duller and faintly barred, with dark grey where adult black, and slight pinkish base to bill.
Similar species
In Europe, Southern Grey Shrike and Lesser Grey Shrike are potential confusion species, and in north-central Asia, could overlap with Northern Shrike.
Distribution
Northern Europe and northwestern Asia.
Canary Islands, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife
Northern Africa: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia
Middle East: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Socotra, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia
Asia: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, northwesternmost China, northern Pakistan, northwestern India
Taxonomy
Complex, and potentially liable to further revision[2]. A large number of subspecies were split as Southern Grey Shrike. One subspecies was left there but renamed to Iberian Grey Shrike, but most were returned to Great Grey Shrike for now. Populations from northeastern Asia and North America formerly included here have recently been split as Northern Shrike[1, 2]. Whether more splits are coming is an open question.
Subspecies
Photo by IanF
Coatham Wood, Longnewton, County Durham, UK, February 2012
This is a polytypic species consisting of 12 subspecies[1]
- L. e. excubitor
-
- Small white patch at base of primaries; minimal white above black mask
- L. e. homeyeri
- Balkan Peninsula to southern Ural Mountains and western Siberia
- Large white patch at base of primaries; broader white band above black mask; overall slightly paler than L. e. excubitor
These two subspecies intergrade where their ranges meet.
- L. e. leucopterus:
- West Siberia to Yenisey River
- [elegans Group]
- L. e. koenigi:
- L. e. algeriensis:
- L. e. elegans:
- North Sahara (Mauritania to Sinai Peninsula and Red Sea)
- L. e. leucopygos:
- Southern Sahara and Sahel from Mauritania to western and central Sudan
Lanius excubitor aucheri/buryi
- L. e. aucheri:
- L. e. buryi:
- L. e. uncinatus:
- L. e. pallidirostris:
- L. e. lahtora:
- East Pakistan and northern India
Habitat
Open upland forests and bogs with scattered trees. In winter, heathland, and sometimes farmland.
Behaviour
Diet
Diet includes large insects, small mammals and birds and it often stores uneaten prey by impaling it on thorns. They commonly hunt from a very high perch usually a tall tree top.
Vocalisation
Song
A complex and variable medley of short liquid trills, whistles, chatter and harsh notes.
Call
A harsh shek-shek, grating jaaeg, rapid rasping aak...aak, a sharp metallic beek.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Olsson, U. et al. (2009). The Lanius excubitor (Aves, Passeriformes) conundrum — Taxonomic dilemma when molecular and non-molecular data tell different stories. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 55: 347–357.
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Great Grey Shrike. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Great_Grey_Shrike
External Links
This link searches for videos of Great Grey Shrike
