Southern Fiscal (Lanius collaris) [XC521365]
by Frank Lambert from De Hoop Nature Reserve, Overberg DC, Western Cape, South Africa (song)
Southern Fiscal (Lanius collaris) [XC638437]
by Lynette Rudman from 12 Willeton Road (near Grahamstown), Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (imitation, song, mimicry\/imitation)
Subspecies
Common Fiscal (Lanius collaris) and Uhehe Fiscal (Lanius marwitzi) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include marwitzi as a subspecies of Common Fiscal (Lanius collaris).
Forms a superspecies with Newton's Fiscal (Lanius newtoni) and Uhehe Fiscal (Lanius marwitzi), and all formerly treated as conspecific. Differences between northern subspecies and southern subspecies in juvenile plumage, extent of sexual plumage dimorphism, visual displays, and possibly vocalizations suggest that two different species may be involved. Further study is required, especially involving molecular genetics; possible vocal differences appear minimal and perhaps local. Subspecies intergrade in many areas, making taxonomic and geographical delimitation of forms sometimes uncertain. Subspecies aridicolus closely allied to and often merged with subcoronatus, but geographically isolated in coastal dunes of Namib region.
Other proposed subspecies are predator (from near Ingwavuma, in north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal), most often subsumed in nominate but sometimes considered a synonym of pyrrhostictus; vigilans (from near Kloof, in eastern Natal), synonymized with nominate; and dominator (from Muchinga Range, in south-central Zambia), merged with capelli.
The following 8 subspecies are recognised:
smithii (Fraser, 1843) - Southern Mauritania (rare), southern Mali
(rare) and from southern Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia east to Central
African Republic, northern PRCongo, south-western Sudan and western Uganda.
humeralis Stanley, 1814 - Central Eritrea, central and southern Ethiopia,
south-eastern Sudan, eastern Uganda, western Kenya, Tanzania, northern Malawi and northern Mozambique;
probably also north-eastern Zambia.
capelli (Bocage, 1879) - Southern Gabon and southern PRCongo east to S
DRCongo, extreme south-western Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and south to Angola
(except south), Zambia and northern Botswana, possibly also extreme south-western Tanzania
and extreme north-eastern Namibia.
aridicolus Clancey, 1955 - South-western Angola and north-western Namibia
(dune-fog zone of Namib Desert).
subcoronatus Smith, A, 1841 - Extreme south-eastern Angola, Namibia
(excluding coastal north-western and extreme south), Botswana, south-western Zimbabwe and N
South Africa (south to north-western northern Cape and central Free State).
pyrrhostictus Holub & Pelzeln, 1882 - Extreme NE
Botswana (around Basuto), southern Zimbabwe (south of Harare), north-eastern and eastern South
Africa (Limpopo and Mpumalanga) and south-western Mozambique (almost restricted
to Gaza province).
collaris Linnaeus, 1766 - Extreme southern Namibia, south, central and
eastern South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and extreme southern Mozambique (Maputo).
marwitzi Reichenow, 1901 - North-eastern and south-central Tanzania.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet