Grey Shrike ID, Northern Pakistan (1 Viewer)

[gilgit2]

I spotted this grey shrike on 22 November, in Gojal Area (36°25'35" N 74°50'22" E) of Northern Pakistan. Unfortunately I could only manage to photograph it from the back. In my opinion its most likely a Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius pallidirostris), but how to rule out Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)?

I would also like to be clarified about grey shrikes. I was just checking around online and learned that Southern Grey Shrikes are now called Iberian Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis), which is very much restricted to Europe. Where as the one we have here in Asia are Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor). At the same time Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius pallidirostris) is still very closely related to Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor). Compared to Steppe, Great is far more common.

 

[tconzemi]

First to your shrike: it is a Great Grey Shrike as it shows short primary projection and bases of secondaries white (one of the light subspecies homeyeri or leucopterus nowadays synonyms)

as to the conundrum of taxonomy, it changes all the time but be aware that
Lesser Grey Shrike is completely different species Lanius minor

Northern group of Lanius excubitor sensu stricto split from Southern group and then called Lanius meridionalis but nowadays Lanius meridionalis monotypic in Iberian peninsula and rest of southern group split, but pallidirostris may be split also as valid species
As long as there is no definite solution to this group maybe best just using the subspecies taxonomy and waiting whatever species they will be lumped to
and this is an ongoing puzzle for 25 years now :-C

 

[gilgit2]

Thank you tom for the interesting reply. I just went through this interesting paper http://birdingfrontiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/The-Lanius-excubitor-Aves-Passeriformes-conundrum.pdf. It seems like Lanius excubitor classification is much complicated then I assumed.

Some of my friends suggest that for above bird to be a homeyeri or leucopterus the range seems bit too south, based on the range this is a meridionalis complex bird likely a lahtora or pallidirostris.