The brown shrike (''Lanius cristatus'') is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

shrike Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...

family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the red-backed shrike (''L. collurio'') and

isabelline shrike 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. It is found in an extensive area between ...

(''L. isabellinus''). The genus name, ''

Lanius ''Lanius'', the typical shrikes, are a genus of passerine birds in the shrike family Laniidae. The majority of the family's species are placed in this genus. The genus name, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some sh ...

'', is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for "

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesal ...

", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific ''cristatus'' is

for "crested", used in a broader sense than in English. The common English name "shrike" is from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''scríc'', "shriek", referring to the shrill call. Like most other shrikes, it has a distinctive black "bandit-mask" through the eye and is found mainly in open scrub habitats, where it perches on the tops of thorny bushes in search of prey. Several populations of this widespread species form distinctive subspecies which breed in temperate

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and migrate to their winter quarters in tropical Asia. They are sometimes found as vagrants in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Taxonomy

In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the brown shrike in the second volume of his ''A Natural History of Uncommon Birds''. He used the English name "The Crested Red, or Russit Butcher-Bird". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been sent from Bengal to the silk-pattern designer

Joseph Dandridge Joseph Dandridge (January 1665 Winslow, Buckinghamshire – 23 December 1747 London), was an English silk-pattern designer of Huguenot descent, a natural history illustrator, an amateur naturalist specialising in entomology, and a leading figure i ...

in London. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' for the tenth edition, he placed the brown shrike with the other shrikes in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Lanius cristatus'' and cited Edwards' work. The specific epithet is

meaning "crested" or "plumed". Four subspecies are recognised: * ''L. c. cristatus'' Linnaeus, 1758 – central, east Siberia and north Mongolia, India to the Malay Peninsula * ''L. c. confusus'' Stegmann, 1929 – east Mongolia, southeast Russia and northeast China Malay Peninsula and Sumatra * ''L. c. lucionensis'' Linnaeus, 1766 – east China, Korean Peninsula and south Japan southeast China, Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi * ''L. c. superciliosus'' Latham, 1801 – the island of

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

(southeast Russia) and north, central Japan southeast China and east Indochina to the

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

Description

Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus)- Immature in Kolkata I IMG 6072

This shrike is mainly brown on the upper parts and the tail is rounded. The black mask can be paler in winter and has a white brow over it. The underside is creamy with

rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish-red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a dia ...

flanks and belly. The wings are brown and lack any white "mirror" patches. Females tend to have fine scalloping on the underside and the mask is dark brown and not as well marked as in the male. The distinction is not easy to use in the field but has been tested with breeding birds in Japan where the female can be identified from the presence of a brood patch. The use of multiple measurements allows discrimination of the sex of about 90% of the birds. Subspecies ''lucionensis'' has a grey crown shading into the brown upperparts and the rump appears more rufous than the rest of the upper back. The tail is more brownish and not as reddish as in the red-backed shrike. Younger birds of ''lucionensis'' have a brown crown and lack the grey on the head. Subspecies ''superciliosus'' has a broad white supercilium and a richer reddish crown. The tail is redder and tipped in white. A number of confusing forms are known from central Asia where the populations of ''cristatus'', ''isabellinus'' and ''collurio'' overlap. The taxonomy has been in a state of flux and some forms such as ''phoenicuroides'' formerly considered as subspecies of ''L. cristatus'' have been moved to the species ''L. isabellinus''. Subspecies ''lucionensis'' has been recorded interbreeding with ''superciliosus'' in Ishikawa, Japan while ''superciliosus'' has interbred with ''Lanius tigrinus'' in central Japan.

Distribution

The nominate form breeds in northern Asia from Mongolia to Siberia and winters in South Asia, Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula. The

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

''confusus'' described from the same region is not well marked but is said to have a wider white brow and paler upperparts and is sometimes included within the nominate population. Subspecies ''superciliosus'' (sometimes called the Japanese shrike) breeds on the islands of Sakhalin, Kuril and Japan and winters in Hainan, Sumatra, Java, and the Sundas. Subspecies ''lucionensis'', sometimes known as the Philippine shrike (local names: ''tarat'' or ''pakis-kis''), breeds in Korea and eastern China wintering mainly in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and the Philippines but also on the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

and in peninsular India. Stuart Baker suggested that the species may breed in the Cachar Hills of Assam but the idea was questioned by

Claud Buchanan Ticehurst Claud Buchanan Ticehurst FRGS (8 January 1881 – 17 February 1941) was a British people, British ornithologist. Early years Born at St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex he was a brother of Norman Frederic Ticehurst (1873-1960) and their father was Dr ...

. This species is rare in

and vagrants have been recorded in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Behaviour and ecology

The brown shrike is a migratory species and ringing studies show that they have high fidelity to their wintering sites, often returning to the same locations each winter. They begin establishing wintering territories shortly after arrival and their loud chattering or rattling calls are distinctive. Birds that arrive early and establish territories appear to have an advantage over those that arrive later in the winter areas. The timing of their migration is very regular with their arrival in winter to India in August and September and departure in April. During their winter period, they go through a premigratory moult. Their song in the winter quarters is faint and somewhat resembles the call of the

rosy starling The rosy starling (''Pastor roseus'') is a passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae, also known as the rose-coloured starling or rose-coloured pastor. The species was recently placed in its own monotypic genus, ''Pastor'', and split fro ...

and often includes mimicry of other birds. The beak remains closed when singing and only throat pulsations are visible although the bird moves its tail up and down while singing. The breeding season is late May or June and the breeding habitat includes the

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...

, forest to semi-desert where they build a nest in a tree or bush, laying two to six eggs. They feed mainly on insects, especially

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

. Like other shrikes, they impale prey on

thorns Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...

. Small birds and lizards are also sometimes preyed upon. A white-eye (''

Zosterops ''Zosterops'' (meaning "eye-girdle") is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the Afrotropical, Indo ...

'') has been recorded in its larder. They typically look out for prey from a perch and fly down towards the ground to capture them.

References

Other sources

* *

External links

Identification notes
- Birds Korea
Videos, photos and sounds
- Internet Bird Collection

- Natural History Resources {{Taxonbar, from=Q790616

brown shrike The brown shrike (''Lanius cristatus'') is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the red-backed shrike (''L. collurio'') and isabelline shrike (''L. isabellinus''). The genus name, ''Lanius'', is deri ...

Birds of Asia