IDENTIFICATION
Great Grey Shrike or Southern Grey Shrike?


     Five species of shrike are regularly recorded in Spain: the Woodchat Shrike (lanius senator), a summer visitor from the sub-Saharan region, breeding commonly in the open grazing woods and scrubland of the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, the Red-backed Shrike (lanius collurio), occupying the Eurosiberian climes of most of the top third of the peninsula, the Lesser Grey Shrike (lanius minor), which nests in the Ampurdán region and the southeast of Lleida, the Southern Grey Shrike (lanius meridionalis), larger in size and mainly resident, and the Great Grey Shrike (lanius excubitor) a winter visitor of uncertain distribution. .

     Although some diehard birdwatchers still insist on using the across-the-board term "Great Grey Shrike" for both lanius excubitor and lanius meridionalis, the fact is that they have now been recognised as different species by the international scientific community (Isenmann & Bouchet 1993, Isenmann & Le Franc 1994). Not only do they differ in some plumage details but also in size, voice, behaviour and favoured habitat.

     At the moment the Great Grey Shrike (lanius excubitor) has two subspecies, the nominate, commoner and more widely distributed, and the homeyeri subspecies, while the Southern Grey Shrike has the following subspecies: elegans, algeriensis, pallidirostris, koenigi (Canary Islands) and aucheri, plus the nominate, of course.

     To avoid getting bogged down in minutiae, we will concentrate here on the differences between the nominate subspecies of excubitor and meridionalis; these are in any case the only two subspecies that ever overlap for any length of time in the Iberian Peninsula.

     The truth is that the commonest grey shrike of the Spanish countryside is the Southern Grey Shrike, whose range is restricted to the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean coast of France. It breeds throughout the whole of Spain except for some areas of Galicia, the Cantabrian coast and the Balearics.

     It is not usually found above 1000 metres and tends to frequent open grazing woods, farm fields, bushy copses and low mountain slopes with scattered scrub, favouring open areas with lots of lookout points.

     The range of the Great Grey Shrike, for its part (remember we are dealing here only with the nominate subspecies) spreads throughout the whole of central Europe, the southernmost limit being marked by the French Pyrenees... except for the birds that turn up in Spain.

     Excubitor favours clearings in birch woods and marshland dotted with pines, although it is generally present in most scrubland areas.

     As for their behaviour, both species share the habit of impaling their prey on thorn "larders", although this habit is perhaps stronger in excubitor, which has to store up more food against the harsher winters in its normal range.

     With the exception of the birds of south Sweden and Finland, most of the northern population of excubitor are partially migratory in winter, usually in a southwesterly or southerly direction. They therefore sometimes overlap with the northern edge of the range of meridionalis, which is mainly sedentary except for occasional short-distance movements.

     The males of the latter species seem to be fairly loyal to their breeding area, so it is the females that are more likely to roam further afield.

Identification:

     There are several features that are useful for telling the two species apart. The excubitor species tends to be bigger, with wings about 10% longer than those of meridionalis, while the latter has longer tarsi and a more powerful beak. These details, however, are often hard to make out in the field so it might more worthwhile to pay attention to the following five features (see illustration above):

     Quizás los cinco rasgos más evidentes (ver lámina de arriba) son los siguientes:

1. Excubitor's white shoulder patch is more extensive but perhaps less eyecatching than meridionalis's, which stands out more against the darker back.

2. The white wing patch of excubitor spreads into the base of the primary and secondary feathers; in meridionalis it is less conspicuous and restricted to the primaries.

3. Meridionalis has a darker back with a brownish tinge, especially in the nape and crown, while excubitor's plumage is a more uniform grey from forehead to rump.

4. The white supercilium is wider and longer in excubitor; the supercilium of meridionalis rarely extends beyond the eye and blends into the forehead.

5. The underparts of meridionalis are pinkish grey while excubitor's are white, at most with a light grey wash.

     The eyepatch of meridionalis is generally larger, standing out in sharper contrast with the cheeks and the rest of the underparts.

 Texts and illustrations: Santiago Villa
Photographs: Jose Viana and Paul Hackett
Translation: Dave Langlois