Shrikes (Laniidae)

Yellow-billed Shrike (Corvinella corvina) - HBW 13, p. 794

French: Corvinelle à bec jaune German: Gelbschnabelwürger Spanish: Alcaudón Piquigualdo
Other common names: (Western) Long-tailed Shrike(!)

Taxonomy: Lanius corvinus Shaw, 1809, no locality = Senegal.
Treated as congeneric with C. melanoleuca on basis mainly of similarities in morphology (e.g. long tail), vocal communication patterns, and social behaviour (co-operative breeding, gregariousness). Races intergrade, and intermediate individuals exist. Race caliginosa sometimes merged with affinis. Proposed race chapini (from Kavirondo, in Kenya) synonymized with affinis. Four subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

corvina (Shaw, 1809) - extreme S Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia S to Guinea-Bissau and N Guinea, E to Burkina Faso, SW Niger and NW Nigeria.
togoensis Neumann, 1900 - S part of range from W Guinea and Sierra Leone E to C & E Nigeria, N Cameroon, Central African Republic, S Chad and W & C Sudan.
caliginosa Friedmann & Bowen, 1933 - S Bahr el Ghazal (SW Sudan).
affinis Hartlaub, 1857 - S Sudan, NE DRCongo, N Uganda and W Kenya.