Masked shrike
Masked shrike | |
---|---|
Male | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Passeriformes |
Family: | Laniidae |
Genus: | Lanius |
Species: | L. nubicus
|
Binomial name | |
Lanius nubicus Lichtenstein, MHC , 1823 | |
Summer Winter |
The masked shrike (Lanius nubicus) is a
The masked shrike's preferred habitat is open woodland with bushes and some large trees. It is less conspicuous than its relatives, avoiding very open country and often perching in less exposed locations. The nest is a neat cup built in a tree by both adults, and the
Taxonomy
The shrikes are a family of slender, long-tailed passerines, most of its members being in the genus Lanius, the typical shrikes. They are short-necked birds with rounded wings and a hooked tip to the bill. Most occur in open habitats.[2] The affiliations of the masked shrike with other members of the genus are uncertain; the "brown" shrikes (brown, red-backed and isabelline shrikes) and tropical species like the Somali fiscal have both been suggested as possible relatives. The masked shrike has no subspecies.[3]
The masked shrike was described by German explorer and naturalist
Description
The masked shrike is the smallest of its genus, a slender bird which usually weighs 20–23 g (0.71–0.81 oz), measuring 17–18.5 cm (6.7–7.3 in) long with a 24–26.5 cm (9.4–10.4 in) wingspan. It has a long tail and relatively small bill,[3][11] on each side of which is a tomial tooth; the upper mandible bears a triangular ridge which fits a corresponding notch in the lower mandible. This adaptation is otherwise only found in falcons.[12]
The male has mainly black upperparts, a white crown, forehead and supercilium. There are large white patches on the shoulders and primaries, and the outermost tail feathers are also white. The throat, neck sides and underparts are white, with orange on the flanks and breast. The iris is brown, the bill is black and the legs are dark brown or black.[3][11] The female is a duller version of the male, with brownish-black upperparts and a grey or buff tinge to the white shoulder patches and underparts. The juvenile has grey-brown upperparts with darker bars from the head to rump, a paler grey forehead, barred off-white underparts and brown wings with white primary patches.[13]
Masked shrikes are most similar in appearance to woodchat shrikes, but are smaller, more slender and longer-tailed. Adults of the two species are easily distinguished, since the masked shrike has white on its head and a dark rump, whereas the woodchat shrike has a black crown, rusty nape and white rump. Juveniles are more similar, but the masked shrike has a longer tail, paler face, and grey back and rump, whereas the woodchat shrike has a sandy back and pale grey rump.[13][14]
Juveniles
Voice
The masked shrike gives the harsh calls typical of this family, with repeated tsr, tzr or shek notes and some whistles, and when alarmed produces a rattling krrrr. The bill may be snapped when the bird is agitated. The song, up to a minute long, is soft for a shrike, with chattering sounds interspersed with rich warbles.[13] It resembles the songs of Hippolais species, particularly the olive-tree warbler. On rare occasions, males may sing in flight.[15]
In the film the Great Escape, the POWs were taught how to mimic the masked shrike's call.
Distribution and habitat
The masked shrike breeds in the
This species is seen in Egypt, Jordan and Israel much more often in spring than autumn, suggesting that the southern movement may be concentrated further east. Birds will hold small territories on about 0.5 hectares (1.2 acres) on migration, and, unlike other shrikes, may congregate in significant numbers.[13] More than 100 have been seen in one locality in Israel, with five in a single bush. This shrike has occurred as a vagrant in Algeria, Finland, Kenya, Libya, Spain, Sweden,[13] Mauritania and Turkmenistan.[3] At least three individuals have been documented in Great Britain,[16][17][18] and two individuals in Armenia.[19]
The masked shrike's preferred habitat is open woodland with bushes and some large trees. Unlike its relatives, it avoids very open, lightly vegetated country. Orchards and other cultivated land with suitable old trees or large hedges are also used by this species. It is normally found in more wooded areas than sympatric shrikes. It occurs in lowlands and in hills up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft). In some areas breeding occurs at greater altitudes, up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft). It may occur in gardens and resorts on migration, and in winter again prefers open country with thorny bushes and large trees like acacia or introduced eucalyptus.[3]
Behaviour
The masked shrike is a solitary species except when on migration. It maintains a breeding territory of 2–5 ha (5–12 acres) and is also territorial on the wintering grounds, defending an area of about 3 ha (7 acres). Although unafraid of humans, it is aggressive to its own species and other birds which infringe on its territory. Most other shrikes use high, exposed branches throughout the year, but the masked shrike only uses conspicuous locations at the start of the breeding season, otherwise choosing lower, more sheltered spots.[13] It perches upright, frequently cocking its tail, and has an easy, agile flight.[11] A masked shrike has been recorded as feigning injury when trapped, only to return to normal when the threat receded.[20]
Breeding
Male masked shrikes sing from perches in their territories from early April, sometimes chasing or competing vocally with neighbouring males.[13] The male's courtship display, usually accompanied by singing, starts with the bird perching erect and shivering its wings on an exposed perch, and is followed by the shrike stepping down its branch and bowing, either on the move or while temporarily halted. The male may also give a fluttering, zigzagging flight display. The female is sometimes fed by her mate while she crouches with spread wings and gives begging calls. Elements of the display are shared with other shrikes, but stepping-down and bowing on the move appear to be confined to this species.[15]
The nest, built by both sexes, is a small, neat cup of rootlets, stems and twigs, lined with wool or hair, and adorned with
Vertebrate predators of young birds include cats and crows.[13] This species may also be infected by parasites, such as a tick, Hyalomma marginatum,[21] and at least two species of Haemoproteus blood parasites.[22]
Feeding
Like its relatives, the masked shrike hunts from a perch, typically 3–8 m (10–26 ft) high, although usually in less exposed locations than those favoured by most other shrikes. Prey is usually taken from the ground, but occasionally picked off foliage or caught in the air with an agile flycatcher-like flight. The kill may be impaled on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder" for immediate or later consumption.[11][13] Because passerines have relatively weak legs, impalement holds the corpse while it is dismembered. It was once thought that this behaviour was shown mainly by male shrikes in the breeding season, but this is not the case. Masked shrikes of both sexes are known to impale in winter and on migration.[23] Individual birds may be very tame, following a gardener or feeding close to an observer.[13]
The masked shrike feeds mainly on large insects, although other arthropods and small vertebrates are also caught. Shrikes fatten up before migration, but to a lesser extent than other passerines because they can feed on the way, sometimes taking other tired migrants.[24] Despite its relatively small size, the masked shrike has been recorded as killing species such as lesser whitethroat and little swift.[3] Vertebrates are killed by bill blows to the back of the head, and the tomial teeth are then used to separate the neck bones.[12]
Status
The
Numbers have declined in recent decades in Europe, although Bulgaria, Greece and Cyprus still have several thousand breeding pairs. Turkey is a stronghold with up to 90,000 pairs. The species is declining in Greece and Turkey because of habitat loss, and a large decrease in Israel is thought to be due to pesticides. In Somalia, this bird is now rare. Migrating birds are shot in the countries around the eastern Mediterranean, despite legal protection in most countries, and there is some persecution of breeding birds in Greece and Syria, where this species is considered to be unlucky. There are indications that this shrike is adapting to plantations instead of natural woodlands, which could help populations in the longer term.[3]
References
- . Retrieved 21 February 2022.
- ^ Hoyo, Josep del; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi; Christie, David A; de Juana, Eduardo, eds. (2013). "Shrikes (Laniidae)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 6 October 2014. (subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hoyo, Josep del; Elliott, Andrew; Sargatal, Jordi; Christie, David A; de Juana, Eduardo, eds. (2013). "Masked Shrike (Lanius nubicus)". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 11 October 2014. (subscription required)
- ^ Lichtenstein (1823) p. 47.
- ^ a b Jobling (2010) p. 219.
- ^ a b Jobling (2010) p. 279.
- ^ "Nubian". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Jobling (2010) p. 224.
- ^ "Shrike". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ "Butcher-bird". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ a b c d Snow & Perrins (1998) pp. 1447–1448.
- ^ a b Lefranc & Worfolk (1997) p. 23.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harris & Franklin (2000) pp. 178–180.
- ^ Clement, Peter. "Identification pitfalls and assessment problems: 17. Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator" (PDF). British Birds. 88 (6): 291–295.
- ^ a b Nikolov, Boris (2012). "Courtship-display in Masked Shrike (Lanius nubicus, Lichtenstein 1823) – undescribed behaviour of a bird species from the Western Palearctic" (PDF). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica. 64 (4): 397–402.
- ^ Glass, Tom; Lauder, Alan W; Oksien, Mark; Shaw, Ken D (2005). "Masked Shrike:new to Britain" (PDF). British Birds. 99 (2): 67–70.
- ^ Stoddart, Andy; Joyner, Steve (2007). "Masked Shrike, St Mary's – November 1, 2006. First for Scilly and England". Isles of Scilly Bird and Natural History Review 2006: 114–115.
- ^ Teale, Bill (28 September 2014). "Birdwatch: Masked Shrike". Yorkshire Post. Leeds.
- ^ Martin Adamian & Francis X. Moffatt (2009), "First record of Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus in Armenia", Sandgrouse, 31: 42–43
- ^ Simmons, Keith E L; Brownlow, H G; Godeck, J W (1951). "Trapped Masked Shrike "feigning disablement"" (PDF). British Birds. 44 (1): 20.
- PMID 13715709.
- ^ Mohammad, Mohammad K; Al-Moussawi, Azhar A (2012). "Blood parasites of some passeriform birds in Baghdad area, central Iraq". Bulletin of the Iraq Natural History Museum. 12 (1): 29–36.
- ^ Beven, Geoffrey; England, M D (1969). "The impaling of prey by shrikes" (PDF). British Birds. 62 (5): 192–199.
- ^ Lefranc & Worfolk (1997) p. 20.
- ^ "BirdLife International Species factsheet: Masked Shrike Lanius nubicus ". BirdLife International. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- ^ "International Union for Conservation of Nature". iucn.org. IUCN. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
Cited texts
- Harris, Tony; Franklin, Kim (2000). Shrikes and Bush-shrikes. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-07036-9.
- Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- Lefranc, Norbert; Worfolk, Tim (1997). Shrikes: A Guide to the Shrikes of the World. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07336-2.
- Lichtenstein, Martin (1823). Verzeichniss der Doubletten des Zoologischen Museums der Königl. Universität zu Berlin (in German). Berlin: Zoologisches Museum in Berlin.
- ISBN 0-19-214155-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-854099-1.
External links
Vocalisations
Further information
- Lanius nubicus in Field Guide: Birds of the World on Flickr
- "Lanius nubicus". Avibase.