a collection of ramblings
The long-tailed shrike is known alternatively as the rufous-backed shrike - for reasons that highlight the confused world of bird taxonomy better than anything. The problem is that there's this thing called subspecies - which means that, for example, to take collared kingfishers, you can get two birds that are technically the same species but… Continue reading Oh, Shrikes! (pt. 2)
We continue with the bird taxonomy lesson/rant with another family on another continent - shrikes. The all-knowing Wikipedia informs me that the name is derived from the Latin word for 'butcher' - or, at least, its scientific family, Laniidae, is. (Linguist nerds: the Latin word is Lanius, which happily also means executioner.) Now, "butcher" might… Continue reading Oh, Shrikes!
somewhere up a tree 