-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Grey Backed Shrike Pakistan? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Himalaya
- Start date
David Roche
Well-known member
Looks good to me...
Sorry for not commenting on this earlier but I was without my laptop for two days.
This is apparently an immature bird as the flight feathers are not that dark, let alone black. I wouldn't expect a first-year erythronotus Long-tailed to show such a broad mask or that much black on the lores. It would probably look more like this:
http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/DB/DBD.../Long-tailed-shrike-perched-on-thorn-bush.jpg
https://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=608375&d=1481616951
I remember reading something about Grey-backed retaining juvenile feathering longer than Long-tailed.
The bird in the images you've posted seems to have a clean grey back without the gingery plumage on the scapulars of Long-tailed, which can be seen clearly in both the above images. It would be nice to see another angle though.
The one thing I don't like is the location - it's more or less the opposite end of the country from where I'd expect one to turn up. According to HBW, the race lahulensis, which is sometimes regarded as an intergrade between Grey-backed and Long-tailed, occurs in N Kashmir, and I see no reason why it wouldn't occur north of Islamabad somewhere.
This is apparently an immature bird as the flight feathers are not that dark, let alone black. I wouldn't expect a first-year erythronotus Long-tailed to show such a broad mask or that much black on the lores. It would probably look more like this:
http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/DB/DBD.../Long-tailed-shrike-perched-on-thorn-bush.jpg
https://www.birdforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=608375&d=1481616951
I remember reading something about Grey-backed retaining juvenile feathering longer than Long-tailed.
The bird in the images you've posted seems to have a clean grey back without the gingery plumage on the scapulars of Long-tailed, which can be seen clearly in both the above images. It would be nice to see another angle though.
The one thing I don't like is the location - it's more or less the opposite end of the country from where I'd expect one to turn up. According to HBW, the race lahulensis, which is sometimes regarded as an intergrade between Grey-backed and Long-tailed, occurs in N Kashmir, and I see no reason why it wouldn't occur north of Islamabad somewhere.
Similar threads
