Desert Grey Shrike, Israel, K20 ponds, 3/2018 (2 Viewers)

[sprosser1]

Hello, I have seen this shrike in Israel near the K20 fish ponds (Arava valley) on 13.03.2018. I guess it is a Desert Grey Shrike, form elegans, but I have not much experience in identification southern grey shrikes.
White primary patch seems to be relatively large (too large for aucheri), bright white underparts (no grey flanks like aucheri), (little) white supercilium (not in aucheri) and limited black on forehead/over top of bill base (broader in aucheri). I am not sure about the white wing pattern in flight (no foto available).
What do you think about that bird?
Best wishes,
Götz

 

[tconzemi]

there is some black over the bill and the upperparts look not that light, which is pretty normal in an area where elegans and aucheri intergrade

 

[sprosser1]

Thank you, Tom. I had intergration of the two taxa not on my mind. Using Collins Bird Guide (Svensson) this specimen indeed looks like a mixture of both taxa. But on the other hand I found a picture in a post of Martin Garner, which looks similar to my bird and was identified as "elegans" (also with some black over the bill):
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2014/01/22/desert-and-asian-grey-shrikes/
Look at the 6th picture from above.

 

[tconzemi]

Funny enough, yesterday i saw pictures of elegans from Western Sahara taken by Patric Lorgé and one bird showed a hint of black over the bill, your OP bird is anyway much closer to elegans than to aucheri