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The magpie shrike (Lanius melanoleucus), also known as the African long-tailed shrike, is a species of bird in the family Laniidae.It is native to the grasslands of eastern and southeastern Africa, where its natural habitats are dry savannah, moist savannah, and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
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.
Some African species are known as fiscals. That name comes from the Afrikaans word fiskaal ("public official", especially a hangman ), because they hang their prey on thorns for storage. Most Lanius species occur in Eurasia and Africa , but the Northern shrike is found in eastern Asia and North America, while the loggerhead shrike is confined ...
The family is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa but completely absent from Madagascar, [2] where the vangas are their closest relatives. [3] They are found in scrub or open woodland, and less often in marshes, Afromontane or tropical forest. They are similar in habits to shrikes, hunting insects and other small prey from a perch on a bush.
It is sometimes known as the long-tailed shrike, but this is to be discouraged, since it invites confusion with the long-tailed shrike, Lanius schach, of tropical southern Asia. The yellow-billed shrike is a common resident breeding bird in tropical Africa from Senegal eastwards to Uganda and locally in westernmost Kenya . [ 2 ]
The crimson-breasted shrike (Laniarius atrococcineus) or the crimson-breasted gonolek, ('gonolek' - supposedly imitative of its call), [2] or the crimson-breasted boubou, is a southern African bird. It has black upper parts with a white flash on the wing, and bright scarlet underparts.
The African shrike-flycatcher or red-eyed shrike-flycatcher (Megabyas flammulatus) is a species of bird in the family Vangidae. [2] It is the only species in the monotypic genus Megabyas . Distribution and habitat
Serengeti, Tanzania. This is a large shrike with a length of about 25 cm (10 in). The head of the male has a grey crown, a white supercilium and a large black mask. The upper parts are medium grey, the rump is white, the wings are blackish, with a white patch which is conspicuous in flight, and the long tail has a white base and a black tip.