Listen to the brown shrike
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
About the brown shrike
The brown shrike is a bird in the family Laniidae (order Passeriformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”. Adults weigh around 33 g.
What does the brown shrike sound like?
Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round. Listening for both helps with identification.
The recordings here are labelled as call. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).
From Wikipedia
The brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. It is closely related to the red-backed shrike (L. collurio) and isabelline shrike (L. isabellinus). The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific cristatus is Latin for "crested", used in a broader sense than in English. The common English name "shrike" is from Old English scríc, "shriek", referring to the shrill call.
Like most other shrikes, it has a distinctive black "bandit-mask" through the eye and is found mainly in open scrub habitats, where it perches on the tops of thorny bushes in search of prey. Several populations of this widespread species form distinctive subspecies which breed in temperate Asia and migrate to their winter quarters in tropical Asia. They are sometimes found as vagrants in Europe and North America.
Related birds in the genus Lanius
More from the family Laniidae
Frequently asked questions
What does a brown shrike sound like?
You can hear 1 recording of the brown shrike on this page, including its call. Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round.
Is the brown shrike endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the brown shrike as “least concern”.
What family does the brown shrike belong to?
The brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) belongs to the family Laniidae in the order Passeriformes.
Sources & credits
- Call · IIT Guwahati Helipad (near Guwahati), Kamrup, Assam, India by Jayakrishnan U – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q790616 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Brown shrike – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo by J.M.Garg – CC BY-SA 3.0