Isabelline Shrike

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Isabelline Shrike
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Laniidae
Genus: Lanius
Species: L. isabellinus
Binomial name
Lanius isabellinus
Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833

The Isabelline Shrike or Daurian Shrike (Lanius isabellinus) is a member of the shrike family (Laniidae). It was previously considered conspecific with the Red-backed Shrike and Red-tailed Shrike.

wintering in Great Rann of Kutch

This migratory medium-sized passerine eats large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a larder. It breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with thorn bushes.

The plumage is isabelline, the sandy colour which gives rise to its name. It has a red tail. Young birds can be distinguished from young Red-backed Shrikes by the much sparser vermiculations on the underparts.

References

Further reading

Identification

  • Worfolk, Tim (2000) Identification of red-backed, isabelline and brown shrikes Dutch Birding 22 (6): 323-362

External links

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