Southern Gray Shrike (Lanius meridionalis lahtora) 11 February 2016. Tiger Moon Resort, Sherpur, Sawai Madhopur District, Rajasthan, India.
![]() I follow Clements, but British spelling "Southern Grey Shrike" widely used. This is L. m. lahtora which ranges from Pakistan to Northern India. It is characterized by a combination of black forehead, white scapulars, no white supercilium, all white underparts and heavy bill. Most features are visible in this photo. This race is split as a separate species, Asian Grey Shrike (Lanius lahtora) by the Dutch based on a preliminary suggestion by Olsson et al. (2010). There is much geographic variation with 12 subspecies recognized by Clements. IOC splits two of those into full species, the Steppe Grey Shrike (L. pallidirostris) and the Chinese Grey Shrike (L. sphenocercus). H&M 4th also split the Chinese Grey Shrike but restrict L. meridonalis to the Iberian Grey Shrike in Southern Europe while including the other Southern Grey Shrike races into an expanded Great Grey Shrike (L. excubitor) as recommended by Sibley & Monroe. Digiscoped with Panasonic DMC-LX5 | Nikon FieldScope III | 30XWA | hand-held (no adapter). References: Lefranc, N and Worfolk, T. 1997. Shrikes: a guide to the shrikes of the world. Yale U.P. Olsson, U., Alström, P., Svensson, L., Aliabadian, M. & Sundberg, P. (2010). The Lanius excubitor (Aves, Passeriformes) conundrum - Taxonomic dilemma when molecular and non-molecular data tell different stories. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 55:347-357. Panov, E. 2011. The True Shrikes (Laniidae) of the World. Pensoft. Rasmussen, PC & Anderton, JC (2005). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Washington DC and Barcelona: Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. Yosef, R. & International Shrike Working Group (2016). Southern Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/60483 on 9 May 2016). |