Shrikes

[Aimee Cokayne]

Please help me ID these shrikes

[simonpeterlloyd]

First one looks like Long-tailed!

[Oscar]

Hi Aimee (and Simon)

the grey shrike should be Lesser Grey; looks too long winged and neat billed, plus has a seemingly faint pink tinge on the underside; none of this adds up to Southern Grey. There have been lots of Lessers coming through the UAE in the last week or so.

The first is more problematic; I don't fancy Long-tailed here, as I think the shape and basic details of the plumage are wrong. To me it looks more like some sort of Isabelline, although it is not typical of either Turkestan or Daurian. However, you do get lots of varients between these two and even some real oddballs that look like neither. I can even see bits of Brown Shrike in there, sometimes! So I am stumped; I guess you don't have better pictures (as you would have posted them) but if you do get any more close-ups, that would be very interesting.

OSCAR

[khalifa]

How about red backed shrike? I cant see solid black coverts and it has wider superciliumAbove the mask

[Sandman]

Wow! Just touched down in Johannesburg. There is a lot of Brown in that bird. What an odd bird!

[Sandman]

From our good friend Paul:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6134360761_2c20fc3aca_o.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbourdin/6134360761/)
Brown Shrike (http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbourdin/6134360761/) by Paul Bourdin (http://www.flickr.com/people/paulbourdin/), on Flickr

[Sandman]

I know the crown colour is wrong on Aimee's bird, but still. Interesting.

[Sandman]

Also, your Abu Dhabi bird
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7652482_nRBBv

Aimee darling: we need more photos of this bird. It looks very, very interesting

[Oscar]

I agree that this is getting closer to Brown Shrike the more I look at it. The way the tail darkens distally is not good for any pure Isabelline of any taxa, although I am not sure that it is really good for Brown either (which should be more uniform on the entire tail?). I also am failing to get the stumpy wings / big body / long thin tail characteristic of many Browns, although Paul's bird does not really exhibit that either, so maybe it is variable, or more obvious in the field than in images. Otherwise, as far as I can see, plumage is broadly fine for Brown; no problem with strong grey tinge to crown as, of course, the Khalidayah bird had that (as did a few vagrant Browns in Western Europe).

Aimee, as Tommy says, if you can get any close ups that really let us see the true plumage tone that would be very useful (indeed essential to be sure it really is a Brown Shrike).

Go get 'im!

OSCAR

[Nick]

First thought, without reading others' comments, is 'slam dunk Brown Shrike race lucionensis'. Oscar - remember the Khalidiya bird? It was just as striking but initially had us wondering about a hybrid of some sort, until I asked "of what?", before we moved on to "why not pure Brown?".

The features of Aimee's bird that look good to me:

- very short primary projection versus proportionally long (and round-ended) tail [Edit: I've now read Oscar's comment above. I do get 'Brown Shrike structure' from Aimee's bird - maybe helped that I just glanced at the thumbnail? Dunno really, but it certainly 'does it for me' re: primaries/tail.]
- pale-edged tertial(s)
- apricot wash across underparts, contrasting with clean white chin/face (compare the pattern of where the underpart colouration meets the white throat to my representation of the same area on the Khalidiya bird - remarkably similar, no?)
- pale whitish forecrown, merging to grey on the top of the head then to warm brown on nape and mantle.

Additionally, the bill and mask look particularly solid (as in the Khalidiya bird).

Back-of-an-envelope (and legless!) sketch of the Khalidiya bird attached - looks a close match to me (insofar as my dodgy sketching has captured what we actually saw!).

[Oscar]

Thanks to Graham 'Tubenose' Talbot (newly re-christened, for services to the UAE pelagic industry - in fact, he founded it), we have a just received some interesting comments on this bird from Paul Leader, one of Graham's friends in Hong Kong. These were passed onto me and I have added them below.

Dear Graham,
First impressions are that this is an adult male L. cristatus lucionensis, and it may well be. However, the apparent chestnut tones to the greater coverts, paler base to the outer web of the primaries, dark tail, and apparent white at the tips of the outer tail feather(s), point more towards it being an isabellinus x collurio hybrid.

Without further photos it is not possible to be sure, but I don’t think you can eliminate a hybrid based on the one available photo.

Regards,
Paul

Cheers

OSCAR

[Aimee Cokayne]

Hi All,

Thanks for all the replies - glad to create a bit of debate amongst you all :) . I have searched high and low for the shrike to get better pictures but I can't find it. Will keep looking and try to get some more photos.

[Nick]

Thanks Graham/Oscar for getting/posting Paul's comments.

I must confess that I overlooked the apparent pale bases to the primaries in my cursory glance and agree that this is an anomalous feature for a 'pure' individual of any race Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus.

However there are a few things that don't seem to fit for isabellinus x collurio:

1. It looks nothing like either of the isabellinus x collurio hybrids that have been photographed in the UAE (nor the illustration of that hybrid in the Shrikes book).

2. If it were isabellinus x collurio, how would that explain the underpart colouration (dead ringer for cristatus, wrong for both the other two)?

3. Though this is more subjective, if it were isabellinus x collurio, how to explain the structure (to my eye very good for cristatus, not great for either of the other two)? It looks a (relatively) long-tailed, short-winged and broad-billed bird.

Personally I think 'within the normal range of variation of cristatus' is an option worthy of careful consideration, though I certainly appreciate that hybridisation needs to be considered - how about isabellinus x cristatus or perhaps better still, collurio x cristatus?

I think there's a hint of immaturity about it (there is some barring visible on lower flanks) so wonder if it is a 2cy (male); if so, could this explain the apparent colour of some of the coverts?

I agree the primary bases are worth as close a look as possible... but wonder how the attached example might look at the same angle / image quality?

Tommy - I'd be interested to see the dates of all previous cristatus records - has there ever been one (or a candidate for one) this early? If so I guess that might be circumstantial evidence against (pure) cristatus.

Certainly a very interesting bird!

[Oscar]

A couple of comments here:

1 Blowing this image up, it seems to me that the tail darkens towards the tip; this is not good for Brown Shrike but plausible on a hybrid with collurio as a parent. This darkening may be an artefact of the photo but, if so, I can not understand why the entire tail does not seem dark.

2 On close inspection I also get a grey tinge to the sides of the rump; again this my be explicable by something unrelated to the bird eg my monitor, but it may be genuine. If it is genuine, it is not indicative of Brown.

3 The greater coverts seem rather warm and bright fringed, and I am sure that this is not due to any being retained juvenile feathers. Virtually all 1w Brown Shrikes undergo a complete moult to adult - type plumage in the winter quarters and it seems to me unlikely that any feathers would survive over a year since fledging. Even if they did, they should be so worn and shredded that they are hard to detect except in the most optimal of views.

So I don't have answers to all the points raised above but I do feel that this is going to be hard to confirm as Brown Shrike. But it is a good bird to get you thinking...

OSCAR

[Nick]

Firstly apologies for the links in my previous post - for reasons unknown they didn't go where I intended so I've attached one of the images to which I was referring to that post.

OK, to Oscar's points:


Blowing this image up, it seems to me that the tail darkens towards the tip; this is not good for Brown Shrike but plausible on a hybird with collurio as a parent. This darkening may be an artefact of the photo but, if so, I can not understand why the entire tail does not seem dark.

The impression I get (and maybe this is what you're saying?) is a rather a clear cut change from brown somewhere just below where the rump ends to almost black lower down the tail, almost as if it had been dipped in a pot of black paint. Agree that this is wrong for pure cristatus (assuming its not an artefact). The only other explanation is that this is just the difference between the rump and tail colouration (which isn't unknown in cristatus but would normally follow the pattern of a rufous-tinged rump and duller brown tail) but the 2 problems with this explanation are
1) the colour change seems to happen lower down the tail than where the rump and tail meet, and
2) the colouration seems to be darkish brown to black rather than rufous brown to duller brown.


The greater coverts seem rather warm and bright fringed, and I am sure that this is not due to any being retained juvenile feathers. Virtually all 1w Brown Shrikes undergo a complete moult to adult - type plumage in the winter quarters and it seems to me unlikely that any feathers would survive over a year since fledging. Even if they did, they should be so worn and shredded that they are hard to detect except in the most optimal of views.

Fair point and my mistake - the dangers of trying to tackle something this complex in a 3 min break from work! Warm-fringed greater coverts aren't out of the question for L. c. lucionensis if the image below is anything to go by, though Aimee's bird seems to have even warmer- / brighter-fringed greater coverts.


On close inspection I also get a grey tinge to the sides of the rump; again this my be explicable by something unrelated to the bird eg my monitor, but it may be genuine. If it is genuine, it is not indicative of Brown.

I agree. And I don't think its your monitor so let's say for the sake of argument it is genuine...


So I don't have answers to all the points raised above but I do feel that this is going to be hard to confirm as Brown Shrike.

This is where I'm going to get off the fence. As I said, I don't see how this can be isabellinus x collurio - if it is, then which features suggest the former? I'm happy to go along with the tail and rump sides being outside the range of normal variation for cristatus and for the sake of argument, the white at the base of the primaries too... which takes us back to a hybrid of some sort.

Hybrids are tough at the best of times but either this bird has several clear cristatus features (http://www.uaebirding.com/forum/showthread.php?4388-Shrikes&p=15909#post15909) - so many in fact that at first glance I felt it bore a close resemblance to the Khalidiyah bird - or I haven't been grilling Brown Shrikes on and off for the last 5 years. It also appears to show some greyish tones on the rump-sides, some chestnut colouration in the coverts, a black(ish) outer half of the tail and pale bases to the primaries... all of which are features of collurio.

So here's my final offering: collurio x cristatus (probably male of the former, female of the latter if that's how gene expression works?!).

Any takers?

[Sandman]

Very well scrutinised by both of you - a pleasure to read and very informative.
Now, before scrapping it as a hybrid - and I do agree cristatus has to be one of the parents - should we get more input from other heavyweights?

As for your earlier request Nick: 3rd October is the earliest ever in the UAE.


Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus
Vagrant.
1. One adult male Emirates Golf Club 26 Apr 2004 showing characteristics of L. c. cristatus (O Samwald).
2. One adult male Khalidiyah 11 May 2007 showing characteristics of L. c. lucionensis (NJ Moran, OJ Campbell, I Boustead).
3. One adult male Jebel Hafit 19-22 Apr 2008, showing characteristics of L. c. cristatus (OJ Campbell, NJ Moran, D Clark, H Roberts et al). Possibly present from 2 Nov 2007.
4. One adult female Jebel Hafit 13 Nov 2008-12 Mar 2009, subspecies uncertain (SJ Aspinall, R Quested et al).
5. One first-winter male Dubai Pivot Fields 2 Dec 2008-23 Apr 2009 showing characteristics of L. c. cristatus (NJ Moran, OJ Campbell et al)
6. One adult male Dubai Pivot Fields 3 Oct 2009-21 Apr 2010 presumed returning bird (A Al Ali et al).

[Nick]

Well done for staying awake Tommy! No danger of 'scrapping it as a hybrid' as far as I'm concerned - a hybrid cristatus x collurio would be a first, wouldn't it? Way more interesting than just another Brown ;)

Bring on the heavyweights!

[Oscar]

In response to Nick's last suggestion, we have asked around from some opinions from international experts on the identity of this bird. We got the following back:

From Tim Worfolk:
structurally most like a Red-tailed (=Isabelline) /Red-Backed though rather short -winged bird, I don't think the tail is long enough for Brown though can't rule it out. There does seem to be a contrast between the dark rufous (?) rump/upper TC's and the blackish tail, again a combination of RT and RB characters. So, impossible to be certain but I think another hybrid.


From Lar's Svensson:
certainly not a Brown Shrike. It looks most like a hybrid between Red-backed and some other taxon, probably Daurian/Isabelline Shrike. It does not fit on any known species as far as I can figure out.

On behalf of the EBRC, and the birding community in the UAE, I'd like to thank Tim and Lars (and Paul Leader - see above) for thier time and help with this very interesting bird.

OSCAR