Yellow-billed Shrike
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| Corvinella corvina (Shaw, 1809) |
The Yellow-billed Shrike (Corvinella corvina) is a small passerine bird in the shrike family. It is sometimes known as Long-tailed Shrike but this is to be discouraged since it invites confusion with the Long-tailed Shrike, Lanius schach, of tropical southern Asia.
The Yellow-billed Shrike is a common resident breeding bird in tropical Africa from Senegal east to Uganda. It frequents forest and other habitats with trees.
The nest is a cup structure in a bush or tree into which four or five eggs are laid. Only one female in a group breeds at a given time, with other members providing protection and food.
The Yellow-billed Shrike is 18cm long with a long tail and short wings. The adult has mottled brown upperparts and streaked buff underparts. There is a brown eye mask and a rufous wing patch, and the bill is yellow. Sexes are similar, but immatures show buff fringes to the wing feathers.
This is a conspicuous and gregarious bird, always seen in groups, often lined up on telephone wires. It is noisy, with harsh swee-swee and dreee-too calls.
The Yellow-billed Shrike feeds on insects which it locates from prominent look-out perches in trees, wires or posts.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Corvinella corvina. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1
