Lanius cabanisi
The Long-tailed Fiscal (Lanius cabanisi) is a strikingly marked shrike endemic to East Africa, renowned for its predatory habits and distinctive elongated tail. Males are sleekly attired in black and white, featuring a glossy black head, back, and wings contrasting sharply with pure white underparts and prominent white scapulars. Their most defining feature is an exceptionally long, graduated black tail, often exceeding half the bird's total body length of 25-30 cm (10-12 inches), with a weig...
This fiscal primarily inhabits open woodlands, thornbush, savannas, acacia scrub, and cultivated areas with scattered trees or shrubs, typically at elevations up to 1,800 meters.
Their diet consists mainly of large insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars, supplemented by small vertebrates including lizards, snakes, small birds, and rodents, all captured through a 'perch-and-pounce' method.
The Long-tailed Fiscal is a highly diurnal and overtly territorial bird, often seen perched conspicuously on elevated points like fence posts, power lines, or the tops of thorny bushes. It employs a classic 'perch-and-pounce' foraging strategy, patiently scanning for prey before swooping down to ...
The Long-tailed Fiscal is an endemic resident species found across East Africa, primarily distributed from south-eastern South Sudan, central and southern Somalia, throughout Kenya, and extending into north-eastern Tanzania and eastern Uganda. Its core breeding range encompasses the arid and semi...
Least Concern
- The Long-tailed Fiscal's tail can be up to 17 cm long, accounting for more than half of its total body length, making it one of the most proportionally long-tailed shrikes. - Like other fiscals, it's often called a 'butcher bird' due to its habit of impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire, creat...