What happened to southern grey shrike?! (1 Viewer)

Hello.

Recently in Tenerife I saw a shrike which I assumed was southern grey shrike, split from great grey. However, on recieving my copy of the new edition of Collins Bird Guide, it seems that the Canaries ssp has been put back into great grey and the Spanish birds are now a seperate species, Iberian grey shrike. This is the first I have heard about this. I thought that, roughly, the southern ssp's of great grey were now southern grey. What's going on? What happened to southern grey shrike?

socialist plover said:

on recieving my copy of the new edition of Collins Bird Guide,

Click to expand...

REALLY!!!

How come mine's not arrived yet???!

I posted this recently on the 'Collins Bird Guide 2nd Ed; Reviewed' thread:

The recognition by most authorities of a widespread polytypic Lanius meridionalis 'Southern Grey Shrike', including pallidirostris 'Steppe Grey Shrike', has recently been shown to be erroneous, eg, Olsson et al 2009:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=02cffc31405f40e92edb2495dbab43ff

Further work is needed to determine the best final arrangement for the excubitor complex, but L. meridionalis is better treated as monotypic (as by Svensson et al, and Dutch Birding). Svensson et al's novel split of L. borealis Northern Shrike (p420) is probably also justified.

A possible treatment suggested by Olsson et al is:

• L. lahtora - Indian Grey Shrike (including aucheri, theresae, buryi, pallidirostris)
• L. excubitor - Great Grey Shrike (including homeyeri, 'leucopterus')
• L. elegans - Desert Grey Shrike (including koenigi, algeriensis, leucopygos, 'jebelmarrae')
• L. uncinatus - Socotra Grey Shrike (monotypic)
• L. borealis - Northern Shrike (including invictus, sibiricus, bianchii, mollis, funereus)
• L. meridionalis - Iberian Grey Shrike (monotypic)

[Dutch Birding already treats koenigi (the Canary Is population) as a ssp of L. elegans Desert Grey Shrike.]

Richard

PS. UK400 Club has also adopted an interim revised treatment:
http://www.uk400clubonline.co.uk/grey-shrike-changes

But note that L. pallidirostris cannot include lahtora (which is senior); and I question the inclusion of aucheri & theresae within L. elegans.

With effect from 2 Mar 2010, Dutch Birding recognises L. lahtora 'Asian Grey Shrike' (including pallidirostris 'Steppe Grey Shrike') & L. borealis 'Northern Grey Shrike' [in addition to L. meridionalis 'Iberian Grey Shrike' & L. elegans 'Desert Grey Shrike'].
http://www.dutchbirding.nl/content/page/files/WPnamenlijstDBArnoudBvandenBerg20100203.pdf

Richard