Тигриный сорокопут: описание и распространение.

Species of bird

The tiger shrike or thick billed shrike (Lanius tigrinus) is a small passerine bird which belongs to the genus Lanius in the shrike family, Laniidae. It is found in wooded habitats across eastern Asia. It is a shy, often solitary bird which is less conspicuous than most other shrikes. Like other shrikes it is predatory, feeding on small animals. Its nest is built in a tree and three to six eggs are laid. It derives its name from the tiger like pattern of its upperparts which are reddish brown with dark bars. Adult males have white underparts and a grey head with a black mask. Females and young birds are duller and browner and young birds lack the grey and black on the head.

The tiger shrike was first described in 1822 by the Belgian naturalist Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. He placed it in the genus Lanius, a group of about 26 species living in open areas across Eurasia, Africa and North America. The name of the genus means "butcher" in Latin, referring to the birds' habit of impaling and storing prey. Within the genus, analysis of calls suggests that the tiger shrike is most closely related to the brown shrike (L. cristatus) and bull headed shrike (L. bucephalus).

The brown shrike is larger with a longer tail and thinner bill. Adults have a brown crown and nape, plain brown back and a white stripe over the eye. Juveniles are less contrastingly marked than the juvenile tiger shrike and have a dark mask. The bull headed shrike is also larger and longer tailed. Adults have a reddish brown crown and nape and males have a white wing patch. The Burmese shrike (Lanius collurioides) is slimmer and longer tailed than the tiger shrike with a white wing patch and a plain chestnut back. It migrates southward in August and September, returning to the breeding grounds in May and June. It winters in tropical and subtropical regions of south east Asia below 1,000 metres above sea level. Its non breeding range extends from south east China south through eastern Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to Malaysia and Indonesia where a few reach Java and Bali in the south and Sulawesi in the east. In winter it occurs in forest clearings and edges, cultivated land, mangroves and gardens. It has a wide distribution and a fairly large population and is not considered threatened with BirdLife International classing it as least concern. However it has declined recently in Japan and Russia.

It feeds mainly on insects, particularly grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, bugs, butterflies and moths. It also takes other arthropods and small birds and lizards. It typically hunts from a perch at the forest edge, perching less conspicuously than many other shrikes. It also forages among branches and leaves to find prey.

The breeding season lasts from May to July. Pairs form during northward migration or soon after arrival on the breeding grounds and are monogamous. Courting males perch by the female, bowing the body up and down and moving the head from side to side while uttering a soft subsong, a more subdued version of the normal song. They also perform a fast display flight while calling. The cup shaped nest is built by both sexes, usually 1.5 to 5 metres above the ground on a branch in a deciduous tree but sometimes low down among bushes. It is made of stems, twigs, roots and other vegetation and is lined with grasses. Three to six eggs are laid with five being most common. They are variable in colour with dark markings on a whitish, pinkish or blue green background. They measure 21.2 24.1 mm by 15.3 17.8 mm. They are incubated by the female for 14–16 days. The young birds fledge after about two weeks and remain close to the nest for another two weeks. Usually one clutch of eggs is laid in a year but a second clutch is laid if the first one is destroyed. Strong winds and predation by common magpies result in the loss of many eggs.