# Lanius

Lanius, the typical shrikes, are a genus of passerine birds in the shrike family Laniidae. The majority of the family's species are placed in this genus. The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call.
Some African species are known as fiscals. That name comes from the Afrikaans word fiskaal ("public official", especially a hangman), because they hang their prey on thorns for storage.
Most Lanius species occur in Eurasia and Africa, but the Northern shrike is found in eastern Asia and North America, while the loggerhead shrike is confined to North America. There are no members of this genus or the shrike family in South America or Australia.
Lanius shrikes are birds of open habitats typically seen perched upright on a prominent perch like a treetop or a telephone pole. They sally out for prey, taken in flight or the ground. These species primarily take large insects, but will also take small birds, reptiles and mammals. For large northern species such as the great grey, the majority of the prey will be vertebrates, especially in winter.
Despite their diet, these are not true birds of prey, and lack the strong talons of the raptors. Though they use their feet to hold smaller insects, larger prey items are impaled upon a sharp point, such as a thorn or the barbs of barbed wire. Thus secured they can be ripped open with the hooked bill.
Most Lanius shrikes are solitary, except when breeding and are highly territorial. Northern or temperate species such as the great grey and red-backed shrikes are migratory and winter well south of the breeding range.
The sexes of most species are distinguishable, the male invariably being the brighter bird where there is a difference.
There are some natural groupings within the genus, such as the seven African fiscals, the large grey species (ludovicianus, excubitor, meridionalis and sphenocercus) and the Eurasian brown-backed species (tigrinus, bucephalus, collurio, isabellinus, cristatus and gubernator). In the last group in particular, it has been difficult to define species’ boundaries, and in the past several of these shrikes have been lumped as conspecific.
The prehistoric shrike Lanius miocaenus has been described from Early Miocene fossils found at Langy, France.

## Taxonomy and species list

The genus Lanius was introduced by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The type species was designated as the great grey shrike by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1824. The genus name is a Latin word meaning "butcher".
The genus contains the following 32 species:
| Common Name | Scientific name | Distribution |
| Yellow-billed shrike | Lanius corvinus | east, central and west Africa |
| Magpie shrike | Lanius melanoleucus | central and east Africa |
| Long-tailed fiscal | Lanius cabanisi | southern Somalia, southern and southeastern Kenya, from the shores of Lake Victoria to the coast; and northern and eastern Tanzania south to Dar es Salaam |
| Grey-backed fiscal | Lanius excubitoroides | Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda |
| Taita fiscal | Lanius dorsalis | southeastern South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and western Somalia to northeastern Tanzania |
| Great grey shrike | Lanius excubitor | Eurasia and northern Africa |
| Somali fiscal | Lanius somalicus | Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia in the Horn of Africa, as well as in Kenya in the African Great Lakes region |
| Loggerhead shrike | Lanius ludovicianus | southern Canada, the contiguous USA and Mexico |
| Giant grey shrike | Lanius giganteus | central China |
| Chinese grey shrike | Lanius sphenocercus | China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, and Russia |
| Iberian grey shrike | Lanius meridionalis | southern Europe |
| Northern shrike | Lanius borealis | North America and Siberia |
| Masked shrike | Lanius nubicus | southeastern Europe and at the eastern end of the Mediterranean |
| São Tomé fiscal | Lanius newtoni | São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe |
| Northern fiscal | Lanius humeralis | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Emin's shrike | Lanius gubernator | Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, and Uganda |
| Mackinnon's shrike | Lanius mackinnoni | Western and Central Africa, including Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda |
| Souza's shrike | Lanius souzae | Angola to Botswana, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia |
| Southern fiscal | Lanius collaris | Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Lesser grey shrike | Lanius minor | southern France, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and southern Russia |
| Woodchat shrike | Lanius senator | southern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East |
| Burmese shrike | Lanius collurioides | Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam |
| Tiger shrike | Lanius tigrinus | Russia, Japan and China |
| Bay-backed shrike | Lanius vittatus | Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India |
| Isabelline shrike | Lanius isabellinus | India |
| Red-backed shrike | Lanius collurio | Western Europe east to central Russia |
| Red-tailed shrike | Lanius phoenicuroides | south Siberia and central Asia |
| Mountain shrike | Lanius validirostris | Philippines |
| Brown shrike | Lanius cristatus | northern Asia from Mongolia to Siberia and in South Asia, Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula |
| Bull-headed shrike | Lanius bucephalus | northeast China, Korea, Japan and far-eastern Russia |
| Long-tailed shrike | Lanius schach | across Asia from Kazakhstan to New Guinea |
| Grey-backed shrike | Lanius tephronotus | Bangladesh, India (Uttarakhand), Nepal, Bhutan, China (Yunnan) |

### Former species

Formerly, some authorities also considered the following species (or subspecies) as species within the genus Lanius:
* Crested shriketit (as Lanius frontatus)
* Rufous whistler (as Lanius macularius)
* Northern variable pitohui (as Lanius kirhocephalus)
* Red-whiskered bulbul (as Lanius jocosus)
* Grey-cheeked bulbul (as Lanius Bres)