Northern Fiscal (Lanius humeralis)
About the Northern Fiscal
The northern fiscal (Lanius humeralis) is a member of the shrike family found through most of Sub-Saharan Africa. It used to be grouped with the southern fiscal (Lanius collaris). Together they were called the common fiscal. The fiscal gets its English and Afrikaans common names from its black and white 'suit-and-tie' appearance reminiscent of the taxman (‘fiscal’). This is a fairly distinctive 21–23 cm long passerine with white underparts and black upperparts extending from the top of the head down to the tail. The bird has a characteristic white 'V' on the back and a relatively long black tail with white outer feathers and white tips on the other feathers. The bill, eyes and legs are black. Adult male and female northern fiscals are quite similar except for the rufous lower flank of the female.
A real field recording of the Northern Fiscal. Press play and focus on the rhythm and pitch of each phrase.
Listen
Our streaming copies are mirrored from the original xeno-canto file and transcoded to 96 kbps mono — a modification, so we note it here; the licence for each recording is named in its credit below.
1 recording on this page · licensed CC BY-SA ×1 · mirrored on this server, free for commercial reuse · recorded in Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and elsewhere · xeno-canto lists 38 recordings for this species in total.
Similar species
- Bay-backed ShrikeLanius vittatusprofile
- Brown ShrikeLanius cristatusrecording
- Bull-headed ShrikeLanius bucephalusrecording
- Burmese ShrikeLanius collurioidesprofile
- Chinese Grey ShrikeLanius sphenocercusprofile
- Emin's ShrikeLanius gubernatorprofile
Species grouped by shared genus, family and range.