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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 shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits.
Shrikes (/ ʃ r aɪ k /) are passerine birds of the family Laniidae.The family is composed of 34 species in two genera.. The family name, and that of the larger genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as butcherbirds because of the habit, particularly of males, of impaling prey onto plant spines within their territories.
The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call. [ 3 ] 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.
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The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call. [6] Nine subspecies are recognised: [7] L. s. erythronotus (Vigors, 1831) – south Kazakhstan to northeast Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-central India; L. s. caniceps Blyth, 1846 – west, central, south India and Sri Lanka
The northern shrike was formally described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808 under its present binomial name Lanius borealis. [2] [3] In the 19th century, North American ornithologists considered it as a separate species from the great grey shrike, while European authorities held them to be the same species.
The trills sung by males during breeding season vary in rhythm and pitch. When alarmed, a shrike will produce a "schgra-a-a" shriek while spreading out its tail feathers. A distinctive alarm call is often given when threats from above are detected. Nestlings will make "tcheek" and "tsp" sounds shortly after hatching. [22]
The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits.The common name is from the specific isabellinus, Neo-Latin for "greyish-yellow" probably named for Isabella I of Castile, said to have promised not to change her undergarments until Spain was freed from the Moors. [2]