Habitat
Subtropical and tropical lowland dry grassland, high altitude grassland, lowland moist shrubland, high altitude shrubland, lowland and montane moist forest. From 2,200 - 4,500 m.
Grey-backed Shrike (Lanius tephronotus) [XC607744]
by Greg Irving from Ph\u00f4ngsali (track west of Phou Fa), Phongsali, Laos (call)
Grey-backed Shrike (Lanius tephronotus) [XC191586]
by Mike Dooher from Kanda Shan Pass, Qinghai, China (song)
Subspecies
Closely allied with Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach), and formerly treated as conspecific, but differs in morphology. The two species are largely sympatric and, although subspecies lahulensis sometimes considered to represent a hybrid population between them, there is no definite proof of interbreeding.
The following 2 subspecies are recognised:
lahulensis Koelz, 1950 - Breeds northern Kashmir east to central-northern India
(Uttaranchal Pradesh), and probably south-western China (western Xizang).
tephronotus (Vigors, 1831) - Breeds Nepal east to north-eastern India
(Arunachal Pradesh), and central and southern China (southern Gansu, Ningxia and E
Shaanxi south to south-eastern Qinghai, southern and eastern Xizang, south-eastern Yunnan and central Guizhou);
non-breeding also south to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet