Tiger Shrike
Encyclopedia
The Tiger Shrike or Thick-billed Shrike (Lanius tigrinus) is a small passerine
bird
which belongs to the genus
Lanius
in the shrike
family, Laniidae. It is found in wooded habitat
s across eastern Asia
. It is a shy, often solitary bird which is less conspicuous than most other shrikes. Like other shrikes it is predatory
, feeding on small animals. Its nest
is built in a tree and three to six eggs
are laid.
It derives its name from the tiger
-like pattern of its upperparts which are reddish-brown with dark bars. Adult males have white underparts and a grey head with a black mask. Females and young birds are duller and browner and young birds lack the grey and black on the head.
naturalist Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez
in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. He placed it in the genus Lanius, a group of about 26 species
living in open areas across Eurasia
, Africa
and North America
. The name of the genus means "butcher" in Latin, referring to the birds' habit of impaling and storing prey. Within the genus, analysis of calls suggests that the Tiger Shrike is most closely related to the Brown Shrike
(L. cristatus) and Bull-headed Shrike
(L. bucephalus). It has no recognized subspecies
.
The thick bill
is blue-black with a black tip and the legs are grey-black. The adult male's back, rump and shoulders are reddish-brown with blackish bars creating a tiger
-like pattern. It has a black forehead and mask and grey crown and nape. The wings and tail are brown and the underparts are white, sometimes with faint barring on the flanks. Females are duller and browner than the males with a less extensive black mask, less grey on the head, a narrow white stripe above the eye, pale patch between the bill and eye and buff-white flanks with black barring. Juvenile
birds have dark scale-like markings on the head, back and underparts and lack the grey and black on the head. Their bill has a pale base and the eye appears large due to a pale ring around it.
(Lanius collurioides) is slimmer and longer-tailed than the Tiger Shrike with a white wing-patch and a plain chestnut back.
is a musical warbling. It has a variety of harsh calls including a loud, repeated territorial call, a chattering alarm call and a softer trilling call. It often calls from within cover but territorial males call from a prominent perch.
It breeds in temperate
regions of eastern Asia in deciduous or mixed woodland
, forest edges and farmland with scattered trees. It is found in lowland areas, mainly occurring below 150 metres in Russia
, 800 metres in Japan
and 900 metres in China
. Its range covers Ussuriland in the Russian Far East
north to about 44°N, central and eastern China, Korea
and northern and central parts of the Japanese island of Honshū
.
It migrates
southward in August and September, returning to the breeding grounds in May and June. It winters in tropical and subtropical regions of south-east Asia below 1,000 metres above sea-level. Its non-breeding range extends from south-east China south through eastern Burma, Thailand
, Laos
and Vietnam
to Malaysia and Indonesia
where a few reach Java
and Bali
in the south and Sulawesi
in the east. In winter it occurs in forest clearings and edges, cultivated land, mangrove
s and gardens.
Vagrant birds have occurred in Hong Kong
and the Philippines
. In Australia
, a dead bird which may have arrived on a ship was once found near Fremantle
and a bird was seen on Christmas Island
in April 2008.
It has a wide distribution and a fairly large population and is not considered threatened with BirdLife International
classing it as Least Concern
. However it has declined recently in Japan and Russia. In Japan, it is now uncommon and local but was formerly common and occurred in the suburbs of Tokyo
.
s, particularly grasshopper
s, crickets
, beetle
s, bugs
, butterflies
and moth
s. It also takes other arthropods and small birds and lizard
s. It typically hunts from a perch at the forest edge, perching less conspicuously than many other shrikes. It also forages among branches and leaves to find prey.
. Courting males perch by the female, bowing the body up and down and moving the head from side to side while uttering a soft subsong, a more subdued version of the normal song. They also perform a fast display-flight while calling.
The cup-shaped nest is built by both sexes, usually 1.5 to 5 metres above the ground on a branch in a deciduous tree but sometimes low down among bushes. It is made of stems, twigs, roots and other vegetation and is lined with grasses.
Three to six eggs are laid with five being most common. They are variable in colour with dark markings on a whitish, pinkish or blue-green background. They measure 21.2-24.1 mm by 15.3-17.8 mm. They are incubated
by the female for 14–16 days. The young birds fledge
after about two weeks and remain close to the nest for another two weeks. Usually one clutch
of eggs is laid in a year but a second clutch is laid if the first one is destroyed. Strong winds and predation by Common Magpies result in the loss of many eggs.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
which belongs to the genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Lanius
Lanius
Lanius, the typical shrikes, are a genus of passerine birds in the shrike family. The majority of the family's species are placed in this genus. African species are known as fiscals...
in the shrike
Shrike
Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of thirty-one species in three genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes were also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits...
family, Laniidae. It is found in wooded habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
s across eastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. It is a shy, often solitary bird which is less conspicuous than most other shrikes. Like other shrikes it is predatory
Predation
In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator feeds on its prey . Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of its prey and the eventual absorption of the prey's tissue through consumption...
, feeding on small animals. Its nest
Bird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
is built in a tree and three to six eggs
Bird egg
Bird eggs are laid by females and incubated for a time that varies according to the species; a single young hatches from each egg. Average clutch sizes range from one to about 17...
are laid.
It derives its name from the tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
-like pattern of its upperparts which are reddish-brown with dark bars. Adult males have white underparts and a grey head with a black mask. Females and young birds are duller and browner and young birds lack the grey and black on the head.
Taxonomy
The Tiger Shrike was first described in 1822 by the BelgianBelgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
naturalist Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez
Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez
Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez was a Belgian naturalist.He founded with the French botanist Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and the Belgian chemist Jean-Baptiste Van Mons the Annales générales de Sciences physiques consacrées aux Sciences naturelles published in six volumes between 1819 and...
in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. He placed it in the genus Lanius, a group of about 26 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
living in open areas across Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. The name of the genus means "butcher" in Latin, referring to the birds' habit of impaling and storing prey. Within the genus, analysis of calls suggests that the Tiger Shrike is most closely related to the Brown Shrike
Brown Shrike
The Brown Shrike is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the Red-backed Shrike and Isabelline Shrike . Like most other shrikes, it has a distinctive black "bandit-mask" through the eye...
(L. cristatus) and Bull-headed Shrike
Bull-headed Shrike
The Bull-headed Shrike is a passerine bird of eastern Asia belonging to the shrike family Laniidae.It is 19-20 cm long. The male has a brown crown, white eyebrow and black mask. The back is grey-brown while the wings are dark with a white patch. The flanks are rufous and the rest of the...
(L. bucephalus). It has no recognized subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
.
Description
It is a fairly small, stocky shrike, 17–19 cm long. Males weigh 27-29 grams and have a wing length of 77.8-83.9 mm, a tail length of 66.9-75.0 mm and a bill length of 14.1-15.9 mm. Females weigh 29-37 grams and have a wing length of 79.5-85.3 mm, a tail length of 66.3-79.1 mm and a bill length of 14.8-16.7 mm.The thick bill
Beak
The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which is used for eating and for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, courtship and feeding young...
is blue-black with a black tip and the legs are grey-black. The adult male's back, rump and shoulders are reddish-brown with blackish bars creating a tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
-like pattern. It has a black forehead and mask and grey crown and nape. The wings and tail are brown and the underparts are white, sometimes with faint barring on the flanks. Females are duller and browner than the males with a less extensive black mask, less grey on the head, a narrow white stripe above the eye, pale patch between the bill and eye and buff-white flanks with black barring. Juvenile
Juvenile (organism)
A juvenile is an individual organism that has not yet reached its adult form, sexual maturity or size. Juveniles sometimes look very different from the adult form, particularly in terms of their colour...
birds have dark scale-like markings on the head, back and underparts and lack the grey and black on the head. Their bill has a pale base and the eye appears large due to a pale ring around it.
Similar species
The Brown Shrike is larger with a longer tail and thinner bill. Adults have a brown crown and nape, plain brown back and a white stripe over the eye. Juveniles are less contrastingly marked than the juvenile Tiger Shrike and have a dark mask. The Bull-headed Shrike is also larger and longer-tailed. Adults have a reddish-brown crown and nape and males have a white wing-patch. The Burmese ShrikeBurmese Shrike
The Burmese Shrike is a species of bird in the Laniidae family.It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam....
(Lanius collurioides) is slimmer and longer-tailed than the Tiger Shrike with a white wing-patch and a plain chestnut back.
Voice
Its songBird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs are distinguished by function from calls.-Definition:The distinction between songs and calls is based upon...
is a musical warbling. It has a variety of harsh calls including a loud, repeated territorial call, a chattering alarm call and a softer trilling call. It often calls from within cover but territorial males call from a prominent perch.
Distribution and habitat
Temperate
In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold...
regions of eastern Asia in deciduous or mixed woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
, forest edges and farmland with scattered trees. It is found in lowland areas, mainly occurring below 150 metres in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, 800 metres in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and 900 metres in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Its range covers Ussuriland in the Russian Far East
Russian Far East
Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
north to about 44°N, central and eastern China, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and northern and central parts of the Japanese island of Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
.
It migrates
Bird migration
Bird migration is the regular seasonal journey undertaken by many species of birds. Bird movements include those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Sometimes, journeys are not termed "true migration" because they are irregular or in only one direction...
southward in August and September, returning to the breeding grounds in May and June. It winters in tropical and subtropical regions of south-east Asia below 1,000 metres above sea-level. Its non-breeding range extends from south-east China south through eastern Burma, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
to Malaysia and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
where a few reach Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
and Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
in the south and Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
in the east. In winter it occurs in forest clearings and edges, cultivated land, mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s and gardens.
Vagrant birds have occurred in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, a dead bird which may have arrived on a ship was once found near Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
and a bird was seen on Christmas Island
Christmas Island
The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
in April 2008.
It has a wide distribution and a fairly large population and is not considered threatened with BirdLife International
BirdLife International
BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...
classing it as Least Concern
Least Concern
Least Concern is an IUCN category assigned to extant taxon or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category. As such they do not qualify as threatened, Near Threatened, or Conservation Dependent...
. However it has declined recently in Japan and Russia. In Japan, it is now uncommon and local but was formerly common and occurred in the suburbs of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
.
Feeding
It feeds mainly on insectInsect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, particularly grasshopper
Grasshopper
The grasshopper is an insect of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish it from bush crickets or katydids, it is sometimes referred to as the short-horned grasshopper...
s, crickets
Cricket (insect)
Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets...
, beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s, bugs
Hemiptera
Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...
, butterflies
Butterfly
A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...
and moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
s. It also takes other arthropods and small birds and lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
s. It typically hunts from a perch at the forest edge, perching less conspicuously than many other shrikes. It also forages among branches and leaves to find prey.
Reproduction
The breeding season lasts from May to July. Pairs form during northward migration or soon after arrival on the breeding grounds and are monogamousMonogamy
Monogamy /Gr. μονός+γάμος - one+marriage/ a form of marriage in which an individual has only one spouse at any one time. In current usage monogamy often refers to having one sexual partner irrespective of marriage or reproduction...
. Courting males perch by the female, bowing the body up and down and moving the head from side to side while uttering a soft subsong, a more subdued version of the normal song. They also perform a fast display-flight while calling.
The cup-shaped nest is built by both sexes, usually 1.5 to 5 metres above the ground on a branch in a deciduous tree but sometimes low down among bushes. It is made of stems, twigs, roots and other vegetation and is lined with grasses.
Three to six eggs are laid with five being most common. They are variable in colour with dark markings on a whitish, pinkish or blue-green background. They measure 21.2-24.1 mm by 15.3-17.8 mm. They are incubated
Avian incubation
Incubation refers to the process by which certain oviparous animals hatch their eggs, and to the development of the embryo within the egg. The most vital factor of incubation is the constant temperature required for its development over a specific period. Especially in domestic fowl, the act of...
by the female for 14–16 days. The young birds fledge
Fledge
Fledge is the stage in a young bird's life when the feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. It also describes the act of a chick's parents raising it to a fully grown state...
after about two weeks and remain close to the nest for another two weeks. Usually one clutch
Clutch (eggs)
A clutch of eggs refers to all the eggs produced by birds or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest.In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators, , results in double-clutching...
of eggs is laid in a year but a second clutch is laid if the first one is destroyed. Strong winds and predation by Common Magpies result in the loss of many eggs.