Corvinella corvina
The striking Yellow-billed Shrike, *Corvinella corvina*, is a highly social passerine endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Measuring 30-36 cm in length, with its exceptionally long, graduated tail contributing up to 20 cm, it presents a slender profile. Adults are characterized by their dusky brown to grey-brown upperparts, paler underparts, and the species' namesake, a prominent bright yellow bill which may have a dark tip. This monotypic genus stands out among shrikes for its pronounced cooperati...
This species thrives in open woodlands, savannas, thorny scrub, and cultivated lands, frequently found near human habitation at low to moderate elevations.
Primarily insectivorous, consuming large insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, and caterpillars, supplemented by spiders, small lizards, snakes, rodents, frogs, and occasionally fruit, often gleaned from the ground or hawked in flight.
Yellow-billed Shrikes are highly social and diurnal, living in extended family groups of typically 3-10 individuals that roost together and cooperatively defend a year-round territory. Foraging is often a group activity, with birds gleaning large insects and small vertebrates from the ground, haw...
The Yellow-billed Shrike is a widespread resident across sub-Saharan Africa, extending from the Atlantic coast in Senegal and Mauritania eastward through the Sahel and savanna belts to South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Its distribution covers much of West, Central, and East Africa, predominantly...
Least Concern
- The Yellow-billed Shrike is one of the few shrike species that is a cooperative breeder, with multiple adults (often offspring from previous broods) helping to raise the young of the dominant pair. - Its tail can be as long as its entire body, making up almost half of its total length, an unusu...