Long-tailed Shrike

Fascinating facts about the Long-tailed Shrike

• When a long-tailed shrike spots a lizard, it perches like a tiny hawk, then glides down at an angle to snatch the prey.
• A survey of wintering shrikes in southern India recorded about 0.58 individuals per kilometre along roadsides, revealing that even in human-altered landscapes these birds maintain a steady presence on telephone wires.
• Long-tailed shrikes can mimic the calls of lapwings, cuckoos, puppies and even squirrels; this vocal repertoire makes them prized pets in Southeast Asia and demonstrates how a predatory bird can also be an auditory chameleon.
• The species builds a deep, loose cup nest of thorny twigs, rags and hair in thorny bushes or wild date palms, lays 3-6 eggs, and both parents incubate them for 13-16 days, a collaborative breeding strategy that boosts chick survival in open scrub habitats.

At a glance

About the Long-tailed Shrike

The long-tailed shrike (Lanius schach) cuts a stark figure against the open scrublands of Asia, its narrow black tail flashing rufous on the outer feathers as it perches high on a wire or thorny bush. A broad black mask sweeps over the forehead in most subspecies, while the eastern Himalayan form, L. s. tricolor, wears an entirely black head; all share a rufous rump, flanks and a modest white shoulder patch. Whether it is the grey-crowned caniceps of southern India or the greyer longicaudatus of Thailand and Burma, the bird’s silhouette remains unmistakable, its sexes alike in plumage, its upright stance a hallmark of the shrike family. When a perch is claimed, the long-tailed shrike launches in a steep glide, snatching lizards, large insects, small birds, rodents and even the occasional fish or snake. It is a consummate butcher, often impaling prey on thorns, yet it also displays an unexpected culinary curiosity, feeding on neem fruit in Kerala and attempting to pin the berries on twigs. Vocalised by harsh, frog-like squawks, the bird is a mimic, weaving lapwing, cuckoo, puppy and squirrel calls into a complex song that has made it a prized, if noisy, pet in parts of Southeast Asia. Its breeding season sees both sexes building a deep, loose cup of thorny twigs and hair in trees such as Flacourtia or wild date palms, laying three to six speckled eggs that hatch after roughly two weeks, and often raising a second brood in the same nest.

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