For the British birder, where every shrike species is sadly now at least a scarcity and some are extreme rarities, their allure is all the more intense. The breakdown of iso lating mechanisms, leading to hybridization and a local fusion of closely related species in their sec ondary contact zones, its causes and dynamics, is another fascinating topic dealt with in the book.

Shrikes of the World - Norbert Lefranc - Google Books Shrikes of the World - Norbert Lefranc - Google Books

While my handy Helm Field Guide to the Birds of West Africa allowed me to quickly identify the two species, Shrikes of the World gave an invaluable deeper level of understanding, allowing me to interpret the behaviour of a family group of Yellow-billed Shrikes and learn things about them that could only otherwise be gleaned from painstaking fieldwork rather than a simple birding outing. In migratory species, a breeding territory is defended in the breeding grounds and a smaller feeding territory is established during migration and in the wintering grounds. Common Swift comprises two subspecies – nominate apus across the Western Palearctic and northern Russia and pekinensis (‘Eastern Common Swift’) from Iran to Mongolia and northern China (Cramp et al. The remaining English records (about ten in all and mostly from the nineteenth century) were not attributed to subspecies but were presumably continental in origin (Scottish birds have not been recorded south of the Central Belt).This is the behavior that these birds are most infamous for, and it's earned them the nickname “butcherbird,” as well as providing inspiration for the names of several fictional serial killers and monsters. Birds showing some homeyeri characters have been noted in Yorkshire and Norfolk ( http://birdingfrontiers. To help you get to know this fascinating group of birds, we've assembled answers to some of the most common questions about them, including what shrikes look like, how they hunt, what threats they face — and how you can help. Their raptor-like features, most notably those wickedly hooked beaks, are likely due to convergent evolution. The subspecies pekinensis is not on the British List although it is a potential vagrant and has occasionally been suspected (Kehoe 2006).

Shrikes of the World (Helm Identification Guides) - Goodreads

Beautiful, colourful, often fearless hunters of large insects and small vertebrates, shrikes are among the most admired of all avian groups.A further five North Asian and Nearctic taxa are treated by IOC as a separate species – ‘Northern Shrike’. The total population today is probably no more than 50 individuals, and much of the species' forest habitat is degraded or already gone.