Lanius collaris
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The southern fiscal or fiscal shrike (Lanius collaris) is a member of the shrike family found through most of southern Africa. It is also sometimes named jackie hangman or butcher bird due to its habit of impaling its prey on acacia thorns to store the food for later consumption. It was previously lumped together with the northern fiscal (Lanius humeralis). Together they were known as the common fiscal.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the southern fiscal in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He used the French name La pie-griesche du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Lanius capitis Bonae Spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the southern fiscal. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the current binomial name Lanius collaris and cited Brisson... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 7 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 11 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 12 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 13 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Mikumi National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 15 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 16 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Fiscal sighting in Durban on a given day, based on 127 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 71st most-seen of the 219 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Fiscal in Durban on a given day, against under 5% in February and September–October, the lowest months. Those are among Durban's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 210 mm in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Fiscal sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 7
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Southern Fiscal sightings, Durban ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Johannesburg (South Africa, about 40%), Cape Town (South Africa, about 30%) and Pretoria (South Africa, about 20%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Southern Fiscal that you can see in Durban (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Common Bulbul (about 70%), Red-winged Starling (about 70%) and House Sparrow (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Fiscal is recorded against all the birds logged in Durban (127 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
