Long-tailed Shrike vs Southern Fiscal

Long-tailed Shrike

Lanius schach

Small52 gShrubland

The long-tailed shrike is a typical shrike, favouring dry open habitats and found perched prominently atop a bush or on a wire. The dark mask through the eye is broad and covers the forehead in most subspecies and the whole head is black in subspecies tricolor and nasutus. The tail is narrow and graduated with pale rufous on the outer feathers. Subspecies erythronotus has the grey of the mantle and upper back suffused with rufous while the southern Indian caniceps has pure grey. A small amount of white is present at the base of the primaries.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Rohitjahnavi · CC BY 4.0

Southern Fiscal

Lanius collaris

Small36 gGrassland

This is a fairly distinctive 21–23-cm long passerine with white underparts and black upperparts extending from the top of the head down to the tail. The bird has a characteristic white "V" on the back and a relatively long black tail with white outer feathers and white tips on the other feathers. The bill, eyes and legs are black. Adult male and female common fiscals are quite similar except for the rufous lower flank of the female. The calls are a jumbled mix of shrike-like swizzling sounds including some imitations and a harsh Dzzzttt-dzzzt-dzzzt alarm call.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: (c) Paul Hoekman, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Paul Hoekman · cc-by

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Long-tailed Shrike and Southern Fiscal.