Lanius collaris
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Fiscal sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 2,488 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March to May
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Fiscal in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, against about 20% in August to November, the lowest months.
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.
8th of 16
Of the 16 parks where we can rate Southern Fiscal sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 8th at about 30%. The best odds are in De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, about 70%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 60%) and Addo Elephant National Park (South Africa, about 60%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Southern Fiscal that you can see in Table Mountain National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Red-winged Starling (about 80%), Cape White-eye (about 70%) and Southern Double-collared Sunbird (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 Table Mountain National Park (2,488 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
