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Shrikes (/ ʃ r aɪ k /) are passerine birds of the family Laniidae.The family is composed of 34 species in two genera.. The family name, and that of the larger genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as butcherbirds because of the habit, particularly of males, of impaling prey onto plant spines within their territories.
The shrike's notes include squeaky whistles, shrill trills, and guttural warbles. [15] The trills sung by males during breeding season vary in rhythm and pitch. When alarmed, a shrike will produce a "schgra-a-a" shriek while spreading out its tail feathers. A distinctive alarm call is often given when threats from above are detected.
The northern shrike was formally described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808 under its present binomial name Lanius borealis. [2] [3] In the 19th century, North American ornithologists considered it as a separate species from the great grey shrike, while European authorities held them to be the same species.
Most Lanius shrikes are solitary, except when breeding and are highly territorial. Northern or temperate species such as the great grey and red-backed shrikes are migratory and winter well south of the breeding range. The sexes of most species are distinguishable, the male invariably being the brighter bird where there is a difference.
The loggerhead shrike is hard to distinguish, but the proportion of the head to the beak (which seems stubby in L. ludovicianus by comparison and is all-dark) is usually reliable. Indeed, the word loggerhead refers to the relatively larger head of the southern species. [25] The lesser grey shrike is a smaller and comparatively short-tailed bird.
The tiger shrike was first described in 1822 by the Belgian naturalist Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. [2] He placed it in the genus Lanius, a group of about 26 species living in open areas across Eurasia, Africa and North America.
The mountain shrike (Lanius validirostris) or grey-capped shrike, is a species of bird in the family Laniidae. It is endemic to the Philippines found on the islands of Luzon, Mindoro and Mindanao. Its habitat are tropical montane secondary forest, forest edge and grassland above 1,200 meters above sea level.
The species ranges across much of Asia, both on the mainland and the eastern archipelagos. The eastern or Himalayan subspecies, L. s. tricolor , is sometimes called the black-headed shrike . Although there are considerable differences in plumage among the subspecies, they all have a long and narrow black tail, have a black mask and forehead ...