Long-tailed Shrike
This is the one of the three Shrike species you can see in Malaysia. It is recorded as a resident in my beloved country ...... actually very rare to see it my side of the KL/Selangor usually in northern state of the Peninsula. It do breed in Malay Peninsula. Easier to see in Thailand. In my case I saw it in Jogyakarta as a caged bird. A beautiful shrike with its long tail probably the Longicaudatus.
It is about 27- 28cm in length. China has the largest population race amongst the nine subspecies . Sexes similar or nearly so. Head and mantle are dark gray, back and rump are rufous; tail is long, black, and graduated; wings are dark with conspicuous white primary patches. Underparts are whitish, strongly tinged with rufous on the sides of breast and flanks. Erythronotus, widespread in central Asia and in the Indian subcontinent, is similar, but distinctly smaller, somewhat duller, and with a narrower black band on the forehead. Caniceps from southern India and Sri Lanka is paler, with less rufous on its upperparts. Race tricolor is a superb Himalayan bird; it bears a black cap, shows a small grayish area on upper mantle, and has mainly deep rufous upperparts. It is rather similar to the three insular races. Race longicaudatus from Thailand has a very long tail. Remarkably, in certain areas, nominate has a melanistic form called fuscatus; mixed pairs have been recorded. Peninsula is called the l.s. Bentet........
A scrub jungle bird, but also associated with lightly wooded country, cultivated areas, and gardens. Generally a bird of lowlands, but in the Himalayas, tricolor populations have been found up to 9,800 ft (3,000 m) and occasionally up to 14,000 ft (4,300 m). Nominate breeds up to 9,800 ft (3,000 m) in China.
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