Lanius dorsalis
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Taita fiscal or Teita fiscal (Lanius dorsalis) is a member of the shrike family found in east Africa from southeastern South Sudan, southern Ethiopia, and western Somalia to northeastern Tanzania. Its habitat is dry open thornbush and acacia and other dry open woodland.
This is a fairly distinctive 21 cm (8.3 in)-long passerine with white underparts and a black crown, hindneck and wings. The back is grey with a characteristic white 'V' and the rump is white. The tail is relatively long and black with white outer feathers. There is a small white patch on the wings. The bill, eyes and legs are black. The adult male and female Taita fiscal have similar plumage except for a rufous lower flank of the female which is usually hidden by the wing.
The juvenile is mainly brown–black above, with barring on the head and buff tips to the shoulder feathers. Its underparts are whitish with darker barring. The adult Taita fiscal is distinguished from other black-headed fiscals by the grey back and the wing pattern, if those are well seen. It gives a jumbled mix of shrike-like whistles and buzzes, including a chwaa-pikerrek-chrrrr-yook pikechik song.
The Taita... Wikipedia →
Song1:24
Ethiopia · 2015
© Andrew Spencer · XC210028 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 2 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 3 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 6 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Arusha National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 9 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 10 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Teita Fiscal sighting in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, based on 134 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 119th most-seen of the 380 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Teita Fiscal in Tsavo West National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and September, the lowest months. That is one of Tsavo West National Park's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 140 mm in November.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Teita Fiscal sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 11
Of the 11 parks where we can rate Teita Fiscal sightings, Tsavo West National Park ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Tsavo East National Park (Kenya, about 50%), Samburu National Reserve (Kenya, about 50%) and Meru National Park (Kenya, about 30%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Lanius
The closest relatives of the Teita Fiscal that you can see in Tsavo West National Park (genus Lanius, Typical Shrikes) are Long-tailed Fiscal (about 40%), Red-backed Shrike (about 20%) and Red-tailed Shrike (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Teita Fiscal is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo West National Park (134 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.
