The True Shrikes (Laniidae) of the World: Ecology Behaviour and Evolution

The true shrikes have been at the forefront of taxonomic revisions in recent years, and fill a unique ecological role in the open country of the Northern Hemisphere and Africa.

Such wide distribution over a wealth of habitats has led to shrikes evolving many local and regional forms, intricate and novel hunting behaviour and different migratory and dispersive mechanisms. Speciation is very much ongoing in the group, and all of this makes for a fascinating and illuminating study subject for the ornithologist, as well as many ID conundrums for the active birder.

The author of this learned doorstop is a key figure in modern Russian ornithology, with extensive field experience in Siberia and Central Asia, one of the true melting pots of shrike diversification. With the classic Wheatears of Palearctic already under his belt, we are in safe hands here.

The habits of the true shrikes of the genus Lanius are analogous to raptors, as they hunt smaller vertebrates and larger invertebrates by ambush, storing many prey items for later impaled on a thorn or wedged between branches in a kind of ‘larder’, before dismembering them. The birds’ favoured open habitats suffer increasingly from human over-use and fragmentation, meaning that many shrike populations are in retreat and decline. The specialised behaviour and extensive divergence make the group ideal for comparative and individual study, and the present book has accumulated most of the important studies of the genus.

Panov has considered the most up-to-date taxonomies, including Olsson et al 2010, but justifies retaining a conservative treatment due to the inconsistencies and incompleteness of most recent work. The micro-relationships of grey shrike forms in particular are being blown wide open at the moment, so this may be a canny measure, though most of the Olsson paper seems to be refreshingly intuitive and logical in its conclusions (see pages 44-47), and Panov introduces tentative phylogenies partly of his own making. He also includes African shrikes of the genera Eurocephalus, Urodestes and Corvinella, currently classified as laniids by most authorities, but he admits that these are quite clearly convergent and incorporates them mostly for comparison.

The text begins with a taxonomic introduction, which places the true shrikes away from other shrike-like groups as sister to the crows (a per Fuchs et al 2004). Evolutionarily, Lanius has gone through four major radiations, the earliest involving the familiar Red-backed and Isabelline Shrikes (their hybridisation zones are fully described in an interesting aside), with large grey shrikes diverging widely, Lesser Grey and Long-tailed Shrikes forming a Hindu-Malayan radiation and a considerable and more recent African divergence. However, the book was published before the most recent work of Fuchs et al (2011).

A substantial general summary of shrike biology then ensues, thoroughly exploring the morphological quirks of their bills, musculature and wings, before an overview of their strikingly bold plumage arrangements, particularly the tails and masked or hooded head patterns. Breeding and predatory behaviour follows, and population dynamics and vocalisations conclude this section.

The book contains a horde of engrossing information, and though the English can read a little stiffly at times, there are myriad titbits to beguile birders in the species accounts that make up the bulk of the book. You’ll find out, for instance, that shrikes mate intraspecifically with relative, though still low, frequency, resulting in a wide range of hybrids, though very few are recorded among the widespread and highly divergent large grey shrikes; most shrike species are parasitised by Common Cuckoo, but an Egg-eating Snake that ate Common Fiscal eggs had its skull crushed by the nesting shrikes; and Asian and Great Grey Shrikes were trained for falconry across Asia, as well as used in The Netherlands to lure falcons. The book finishes with a further elucidation of recent taxonomic work, with the author’s justification of largely following traditional treatments.

This tome has a gem of knowledge on every page. It’s big, it’s relatively expensive, but it will give you joy for years to come if you’re a ‘butcher bird’ fan like me, and you’ll be dipping in and out of it habitually.


• The True Shrikes (Laniidae) of the World: Ecology Behaviour and Evolution by E N Panov (Pensoft, Sofia-Moscow, 2011).
• 910 pages, 329 photographs, 64 maps, 30 tables, 85 figures, 37 line drawings, 9 illustrations.
• ISBN 9789546425768. Hbk, £125.