Lanius schach
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The long-tailed shrike or rufous-backed shrike (Lanius schach) is a member of the bird family Laniidae, the shrikes. They are found widely distributed across Asia and there are variations in plumage across the range. The species ranges across much of Asia, both on the mainland and the eastern archipelagos. The eastern or Himalayan subspecies, L. s. tricolor, is sometimes called the black-headed shrike. Although there are considerable differences in plumage among the subspecies, they all have a long and narrow black tail, have a black mask and forehead, rufous rump and flanks and a small white patch on the shoulder. It is considered to form a superspecies with the grey-backed shrike (Lanius tephronotus) which breeds on the Tibetan Plateau.
The long-tailed shrike was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Lanius schach. Linnaeus cited the description that the Swedish explorer Pehr Osbeck had included in the account of his stay in China. The type locality is the Canton area of China. The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also... Wikipedia →
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© bureaubenjamin · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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© astronorm · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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China · 2026
© Dawn_Land · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Shanghai | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Ningbo | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Nanchang | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Xiuying District | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Chattogram | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 7 | Jinhua | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 8 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Quanzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 10 | Solapur | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gembira Loka Zoo | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Surabaya Zoo | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 3 | Bandung Zoo | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | 蘭陽動植物王國 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 5 | Sea World Indonesia | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 6 | Jakarta Aquarium | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Taman Safari Indonesia 2 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Long-tailed Shrike sighting in Kuching on a given day, based on 65 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 16th most-seen of the 57 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Long-tailed Shrike in Kuching on a given day, against about 20% in April, August and October, the lowest months. December has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Long-tailed Shrike sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
17th of 103
Of the 103 cities where we can rate Long-tailed Shrike sightings, Kuching ranks 17th at about 30%. The best odds are in Suzhou (China, about 80%), Shanghai (China, about 80%) and Ningbo (China, about 70%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Long-tailed Shrike that you can see in Kuching (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Asian Glossy Starling (about 90%), Eurasian Tree Sparrow (about 90%) and Yellow-vented Bulbul (about 90%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Long-tailed Shrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Kuching (65 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.
