part seven:

Brown Shrike mixture

text by Abu & Axel

( links to previous posts: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8)

Nominate Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus cristatus is a common migrant throughout Mongolia and is a common breeding visitor in its prime habitat as well.

Male nominate Brown Shrike L. c. cristatus

Tsetserleg, Jun 2013. © A. Buchheim

Not far southeast of the border to China the nominate subspecies is replaced by another one, which can be recognized easily: L. c. lucionensis. Despite the close proximity of its breeding grounds to Mongolia, and the fact that it is also migrating to more southerly wintering grounds and hence could easily overshoot during spring migration, only two single Mongolian records of luscionensis-type birds have come to light so far, both in June (a good months for accidental spring overshoots) from the Gobi in southern Mongolia:

One was photographed by Axel (leading a Sunbird group together with James Lidster) in the sports stadium of Choibalsan city in South Gobi aimag (province) in June 2004:

Male luscionensis-type Brown Shrike, 14 Jun 2004

Choibalsan sport stadium, 14 Jun 2004. © A. Bräunlich

The second one was discovered by Axel and photographed by Paul Jones (see his excellent photographs from our trip here) in the Juulchin Gobi 1 Camp, South Gobi aimag in June 2012. This individual shows quite much brown reaching up onto the crown, but it has a strongly pronounced supercilium:

Male luscionensis-type Brown Shrike

27 Jun 2012, Juulchin Gobi 1 Camp. © P. Jones

Gombobaatar & Monks (2011) do not list lucionensis for Mongolia at all, but, besides the nominate subspecies, mention another subspecies: confusus.

The acceptance of L. c. confusus as a valid taxon has been doubted. It is poorly differentiated from nominate and is said to intergrade with it (Takagi 2008). Generally it would be very difficult to proof the intergrading of two almost similar taxa! Where should one draw the line?

According to Takagi (2008), confusus breeds from eastern Mongolia eastwards to Ussuriland. Lefranc & Worfolk (1997) also mention that confusus only differs slightly from nominate and list the Amur and Ussuri basins as well as Manchuria as its breeding grounds.

Prepared with this info, the Swamprunner team checked every Brown Shrike in the east. Only (!) in the Khalkh gol plantation we came across birds that differed from cristatus.

The first bird, a male, defended a poplar tree as its territory centre and he was observed to disappear in it frequently, giving rise to our suspicion that it may attend a nest (it must have been rather high up in the tree!). The bird was observed singing during most of the day. It was identified as Mongolia’s first “pure” lucionensis and is portrayed in the following three photos.

Singing male lucionensis Brown Shrike

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © A. Buchheim

Singing male lucionensis Brown Shrike

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © M. Putze

Male lucionensis Brown Shrike

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © M. Putze

Note that it shows no brown on its crown which is pale grey instead. Its entire upperparts (apart from the crown) appeared rather dull brown lacking the vivid red brown colouration of the nominate subspecies. We never saw the partner of this male and she was supposedly sitting tight on her eggs. The next three photos show nominate Brown Shrikes for comparison. Regardless of their sex these are all reddish brown from crown to tail.

nominate Brown Shrike

Buir Nuur, Jun 2014 © T. Langenberg

nominate Brown Shrike

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © T. Langenberg

nominate Brown Shrike

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © T. Langenberg

We also saw two Brown Shrikes which showed intermediate characteristics between cristatus and lucionensis. They neither had clear reddish-brown crowns nor were their crowns all grey (cf the two birds from the South Gobi from June 2004 and June 2012, depicted above). To us it seems plausible to call them intergrades between these subspecies and we would like to ask for comments on the identity of these two puzzling individuals. Are these two actually belonging to confusus? And is it possible that the race confusus is actually a hybrid swarm of lucionensis and cristatus? If so, than indeed confusus would be an invalid taxon.

Brown Shrike, first intermediate individual

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © A. Buchheim

Brown Shrike, second intermediate individual

Khalkh gol plantation, Jun 2014 © A. Buchheim

Literature cited

Gombobaatar, S. & Monks, E.M., compilers (2011). Mongolian Red List of Birds. Regional Red List Series Vol. 7. Zoological Society of London, National University of Mongolia & Mongolian Ornithological Society, London & Ulaanbaatar.

Lefranc, N. & Worfolk, T. (1997). Shrikes: a Guide to the Shrikes of the World. Pica Press, Robertsbridge, UK.

Takagi, M. (2008). Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus. Pp. 777-778 in: del Hoyo, J, Elliott, A. & Christie, D.A. eds. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol 13. Penduline-tits to Shrikes. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.


There are also two very interesting contributions by Nial Moores, discussing the identification of Brown Shrike taxa on BirdsKorea:

Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus appearance and variability of individuals seen on migration in South Korea (from 2004)

Brown Shrikes and the Annual Thorny Identification Challenge! (from 2015)

Two new species for Mongolia! – James Lidster/Sunbird

James Lidster, tour leader for Sunbird has had only one day at home in the UK between two journeys, but managed to mail me a few highlights from his recent Sunbird tour to Mongolia, including two first records for the country! Well done James, many thanks! (Observations by James and his group, text and comments in brackets are by me.)
Axel

Boon Tsagaan Nuur/ Gobi Lakes Valley

A small bittern Ixobrychus sp on 6 June. (Little Bittern occurs in western Mongolia; presumably it is a rare breeding visitor here. Von Schrenck’s Bittern is a vagrant – or an overlooked very rare passage migrant – to eastern Mongolia.)

A Bewick's Swan on 6/8 June. (A rare passage migrant in Mongolia.)


Bewick’s Swan June 2007. Photo © J. Lidster/Sunbird

One Yellow-billed Egret Egretta intermedia on 8 June. (The species is better known as Intermediate Egret, but it is called Yellow-billed Egret in Birds of the World: Recommended English Names, authored by Frank Gill and Mintern Wright on behalf of the International Ornithological Congress, IOC. First record for Mongolia. The closest area where it occurs regularly is more than 1500 km away from the Gobi Valley, well south of the Huang He [Yellow River] in China. A truly spectacular observation!)

Yellow-billed Egret, Boon Tsagaan Nuur, June 2007.
Photos © J. Lidster/Sunbird

A non-breeding Chinese Pond Heron on 6/8 June. (The bird was initially identified as a pond heron Ardeola sp, Indian or Chinese Pond Heron. However, the photo of the sitting bird shows clearly the plain loral area and the plain dark feathers on the lower breast, forming a distinct dark patch on the neck base side. These characters are diagnostic for Chinese Pond Heron and distinguish it from Indian Pond Heron. See Jiguet, F. 2006. Identification of non-breeding Squacco, Indian and Chinese Pond Herons. Alula 12: 114-119. Chinese Pond Heron is a rare passage migrant in Mongolia, occurring mainly in May and June.)

Chinese Pond Heron. Boon Tsagaan Nuur, June 2007
Photos © J. Lidster/Sunbird

Khongoryn Els, South Gobi Province

Grey-headed Lapwing 1 on 12 June (A recently discovered breeding visitor to eastern Mongolia, elsewhere vagrant/very rare passage migrant.)

Grey-headed Lapwing.
Khongoryn Els, June 2007.
Photo © J. Lidster/Sunbird
Heavily cropped picture,
but a good-enough proof!

Juulchin Camp, NE of Dalandzadgad, South Gobi Province

Red Collared Dove (called Red Turtle Dove in the IOC list) Streptopelia tranquebarica one male 12-14 June at least. (First record for Mongolia. I always thought this species to be a good candidate for a first in Mongolia since it is migratory and occurs as a breeding bird immediately to the south of Mongolia in northern China.)

Red Collared Dove, Juulchin Gobi Camp, Jun 2007.
Photo © J. Lidster/Sunbird

Unidentified drongo Dicrurus sp 1 on morning of 13 June, seen 3 times in flight but no photos and it seemed to move through very quickly. (The only record of a drongo from Mongolia comes from the same site and was seen on almost the same day of the month: One adult and one immature Black Drongo together on 14 June 2000, A. Hovorka, H.-G. Folz, W. Rathmayer, D. Batdelger. However, Ashy Drongo is also a candidate for vagrancy in Mongolia.)

Golden Oriole One on 13/14 June. (Rare, but probably regular passage migrant, breeding in western Mongolia).

Other species (regularly occurring in Mongolia) seen on this remarkable trip include for example Long-toed Stint, Oriental Honey Buzzard, White-naped Crane (incl. 2 chicks), Oriental Plover (incl. 3 chicks), Asian Dowitcher, and Grey Nightjar.