Iberian Grey Shrike (Lanius) [XC507560]
by Stanislas Wroza from Tanoeiro, Castro Marim, Faro, Portugal (call, song, subsong)
Iberian Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) [XC350626]
by Nelson Concei\u00e7\u00e3o from espartinas, sevilla, andaluc\u00eda, Spain (song)
Subspecies
Lanius excubitor was split into Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor), Iberian Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis) and Steppe Grey Shrike (Lanius pallidirostris), by AERC TAC (2003) (Sanster et al. 2002), but this treatment is not followed by the BirdLife International.
Forms a superspecies with Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus), Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) and Chinese Grey Shrike (Lanius sphenocercus). Sometimes treated as conspecific with Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor), but the two overlap slightly in range, with little intergradation, in central Asia.
Proposed subspecies jebelmarrae (described from Jebel Marra, Darfur, in Sudan) synonymized with leucopygus, but may warrant recognition. Further study is required.
The following 11 subspecies are recognised:
meridionalis Temminck, 1820 - Iberian Peninsula and southern France.
koenigi E. J. O. Hartert, 1901 - Canary Is.
algeriensis Lesson, 1839 - North-western Africa along Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts east to northern Tunisia and northern Libya (northern Tripolitania, northern Cyrenaica), south to coastal north-western Mauritania and northern Sahara.
elegans Swainson, 1832 - Northern and central Sahara from north-eastern Mauritania, north-western Mali, and southern Tunisia east to central and southern Libya, Egypt (including northern and central Sinai Peninsula), north-eastern Sudan (south to Port Sudan) and south-western Israel; possibly also north-eastern Niger.
theresae R. Meinertzhagen, 1953 - Southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
leucopygus Ehrenberg, 1833 - Southern Sahara in central and southern Mauritania, central Mali, central and southern Niger, north-eastern Nigeria (probably also extreme northern Cameroon), southern Chad and central Sudan (including Darfur).
aucheri Bonaparte, 1853 - Central-eastern Sudan (southern from Port Sudan), Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, north-western Somalia, Iraq, southern Iran, Syria, south-eastern Israel, south-eastern Sinai Peninsula, western Arabian Peninsula and Oman.
buryi Lorenz von Liburnau and Hellmayr, 1901 - Yemen.
uncinatus P. L. Sclater and Hartlaub, 1881 - Socotra
I.
pallidirostris Cassin, 1852 - Central Asia from north-western Caspian Sea (extreme southern Russia) and southern Kazakhstan east to Mongolia and northern China and, in west, south to north-eastern Iran, Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and western foothills of Tien Shan. Considered.
lahtora (Sykes, 1832) - Pakistan (except north) and northern India (foothills of Himalayas) south to Karnataka, east to central Bangladesh.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet