Yellow-billed shrike
| Yellow-billed shrike | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Individual with prey at University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Laniidae |
| Genus: | Corvinella |
| Species: | C. corvina |
| Binomial name | |
| Corvinella corvina (Shaw, 1809) | |
The yellow-billed shrike (Corvinella corvina) is a small passerine bird in the shrike family. It is sometimes known as the long-tailed shrike but this is to be discouraged since it invites confusion with the long-tailed shrike, Lanius schach, of tropical southern Asia.
The yellow-billed shrike is a common resident breeding bird in tropical Africa from Senegal east to Uganda and locally in westernmost Kenya. It frequents forest and other habitats with trees.
The nest is a cup structure in a bush or tree into which four or five eggs are laid. Only one female in a group breeds at a given time, with other members providing protection and food.
The yellow-billed shrike is 18 cm long with a long tail and short wings. The adult has mottled brown upperparts and streaked buff underparts. There is a brown eye mask and a rufous wing patch, and the bill is yellow. Sexes are similar, but immatures show buff fringes to the wing feathers.
This is a conspicuous and gregarious bird, always seen in groups, often lined up on telephone wires. It is noisy, with harsh swee-swee and dreee-too calls.
The yellow-billed shrike feeds on insects which it locates from prominent look-out perches in trees, wires or posts.
References
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- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Corvinella corvina". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- Birds of The Gambia by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ISBN 1-873403-32-1
- Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; and Pearson, David J. (1999). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Field Guide Edition. Princeton University Press. p. 494. ISBN 0-691-01022-6.