Acrocephalus 36 (164/165): 79–82 2015 10.1515/acro-2015-0007 Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus: a new species to the Bulgarian avifauna Bledi srakoper Lanius isabellinus: nova vrsta v bolgarski avifavni Assen Ignatov1, Daniel Mitev2 , Rob Berkelder3, Paul van der Poel4 1 2 3 4 National Museum of Natural History, Soia, Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd. 1, BG–1000 Soia, Bulgaria, e–mail: assen.ignatov@gmail.com Bulgarian Society of the Protection of Birds, P. O. Box 50, BG–1111 Soia, Bulgaria, e–mail: danielmitev@gmail. com e–mail: rob.berkelder@yahoo.com Klaver 59, 1273 AK Huizen, the Netherlands, e–mail: loespaul.vanderpoel@gmail.com he Isabelline Shrike (Lanius isabellinus Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 1833) is a species, which is known to breed from Iran through central Asia, the Russian Altai Mountains to northern China and Mongolia reaching the upper Amur River (Dement’ev & Gladkov 1968, Cramp & Perrins 1993). It prefers to breed in lat hilly areas between 1,000 and 2,000 m a.s.l., usually in narrow foothill gorges near water or even in gardens. Another type of habitat are dry steppe areas with bushes predominantly of Caragana spp. All populations are migratory and winter from northwestern India and Afghanistan through southern Middle East to subSaharan Africa west to Nigeria and south to Kenya (Chapin 1954, Cramp & Perrins 1993). Birds leave their African and Middle Eastern wintering grounds between late February and late March (Cramp & Perrins 1993); they reach their northwest Chinese breeding grounds as early as mid-March (Ludlow & Kinnear 1933) and the extreme northeast of their range by the end of May (Cramp & Perrins 1993). he species migrates along a broad front with no apparent areas of concentration. A clear picture of the species' phenology, movements and wintering range is diicult to establish due to confusion in identiication and nomenclature (Pearson 1979). he taxonomy of the Isabelline Shrike is complex and has been a source of much debate. he Isabelline Shrike encompasses the following taxa: L. (i.) isabellinus (breeding from southeastern Altai and north central China to India, wintering in eastern and central Africa), L. (i.) arenarius (breeding in northwestern China (Xinjiang), wintering in Iran, Pakistan and northwestern India), L. (i.) tsaidamensis (breeding in northern China (Qinghai), wintering range unknown), L. (i.) phoenicuroides (breeding in Iran, far northwestern China (Xinjiang), Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, western Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and southern Kazakhstan, wintering in Iran, Pakistan and northwestern India) (Worfolk 2000). Based on the range and migratory habits, isabellinus has the highest potential for vagrancy in Europe, followed by phoenicuroides, while the occurrence of other taxa would be unprecedented (Worfolk 2000). Several West European specialists treat the appellation Daurian Shrike as the correct English name for Lanius isabellinus (Sangster et al. 2003). he Dutch Committee for Systematics (CSNA) split the Isabelline Shrike into three species (Sangster et al. 1998). he decision was based on qualitative diferences in morphology and analyses of the species' contact zones and vocalizations. Sangster et al. (1998) named the taxa as follows: Isabelline Shrike, L. isabellinus (formerly speculigerus); Daurian Shrike L. phoenicuroides; Turkestan Shrike L. arenarius (formerly isabellinus); and Chinese Shrike, L. tsaidamensis. Ater this taxonomic change, the Dutch Rarities Committee (CDNA) re-assessed all national records to identify the birds to a speciic level (van der Laan & CDNA 2008). Later on, Panov (2009) re-examined the nomenclature of the polytypic Lanius isabellinus sensu lato also using substantial data supported by mitochondrial DNA analyses (Panov 2011) and revised the status of the above four taxa considering them as subspecies. Clements et al. (2015) removed the subspecies phoenicuroides from Rufous-tailed Shrike L. isabellinus and changed the English name of the species to Isabelline Shrike. he monotypic L. phoenicuroides is therefore considered an independent species by Clements. his view is shared by Gill & Donsker (2015). Nevertheless, both the British Ornithologists' Union (British Ornithologists' Union 2013) and the Association of European Rarities Committees (Crochet & Joynt 2015) still consider phoenicuroides a subspecies, a view which we follow in this paper as well. he Isabelline Shrike sensu lato has been recorded many times (about 140, > 20 of these have been accepted as isabellinus and > 120 as isabellinus/phoenicuroides) in European countries including United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Scandinavian countries, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Netherlands and Switzerland (Small 2000, van der Laan & CDNA 2008). here are three records in Austria (Laber & Ranner 1997, Ranner 1999, Ranner & Khil 2008). In most Central and Western European countries, the 79 A. Ignatov, D. Mitev, R. Berkelder, P. van der Poel: Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus: a new species to the Bulgarian avifauna species has been observed in almost all months of the year except February, with a large peak in the second half of October and a smaller one between late April and early June (van der Laan & CDNA 2008). Only a few records from the Balkans are known – one in Romania (Sep 2004, 1cy bird) and eight in Greece (Sep 1995 adult ♂, Apr 2000 adult ♂, Sep 2002 1cy bird, May 2009 adult ♀, Sep 2009 1cy bird, Apr 2014 adult ♂, with two birds identiied as phoenicuroides: May 2006 adult ♀, Sep 2009 adult ♀) (van der Laan & CDNA 2008, Hellenic Rarities Committee 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010). Until now, there have been no records of this species from Bulgaria, although considering the number of records from all across Europe it was reasonable to expect it in this country as well. In this paper we report on the irst two observations of the Isabelline Shrike in Bulgaria. he irst observation was made on 24 May 2010 during a bird watching trip to the Slavyanka Mountain (Figure 1) – an Important Bird Area (IBA) in Bulgaria (code BG0002078), at the border of the Alibotush Reserve (UTM GL 19, SW Bulgaria) by a group of Bulgarian and Dutch ornithologists. he area lies at an altitude of about 590 m a.s.l., close to the Bulgarian-Greek border, about 2 km southwest of the Goleshovo village. he weather that day was dry and sunny. he geological composition of the site, together with the complete lack of open water sources, the geographic situation and the speciic local climate have created conditions for the development of a mountain habitat of Submediterranean type. he foothills of the mountain are located in the xerothermic oak belt, which presently consists mainly of secondary forests and bushes of Carpinus orientalis. Up the hills Fagus moesiaca forests follow (Kostadinova & Gramatikov 2007). he area resembles typical breeding habitat of the Isabelline Shrike. At around 14.00 hrs on that day, the group spotted a shrike, which was subsequently identiied as Isabelline Shrike. During the observations, a sketch of the bird (Figure 2) was made by one of the authors. he bird was feeding on a Bright Bush-cricket Poecilimon sp. Ater catching its prey, the bird perched on the top of a small wild apple tree Malus sp. Judging by its size and structure, the bird was a typical shrike with long and thick bill, long tail and stocky head. he predominating colour was light sandy, with a more greyish back and neck and rusty tail. It had a poorly pronounced facial mask and no strong barring on the breast. he supercilium was almost absent. here was no scaly pattern on the mantle, chest or belly. We 80 Figure 1: Observation sites of Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus in Bulgaria Slika 1: Kraja opazovanja bledega srakoperja Lanius isabellinus v Bolgariji Figure 2: Isabelline Shrike Lanius isabellinus, Slavyanka Mountain, southwest Bulgaria, 24 May 2010 (sketch: A. Ignatov) Slika 2: Bledi srakoper Lanius isabellinus, gora Slavjanka, jugozahodna Bolgarija, 24. 5. 2010 (skica: A. Ignatov) Acrocephalus 36 (164/165): 79–82, 2015 concluded that the observed bird was most probably a 2cy male Isabelline Shrike. he colour pattern and size resembled those of an adult male bird, but there was not as much contrast between the under- and upperparts. Due to the weakly expressed colour pattern, the subspeciic identiication is unclear. he second bird was observed at Durankulak Lake (UTM PJ23, NE Bulgaria) on 28 Sep 2014 at about 10.40 hrs. he lake is an IBA (code BG0002050) located 6 km from the border with Romania, to the east of the village with the same name (Figure 1). he area is surrounded by farmland and steppe habitats. Sand dunes and beach separate it from the sea on the east. he main habitats are open water areas and huge massifs of vascular hygrophyte vegetation, covering mainly the northern and southwestern parts of the lake, as well as the marsh on its south-eastern side (Kostadinova & Gramatikov 2007). A day before the observation, a strong wind from north-northeast had started blowing in a broad geographic area between the Ural Mts and central Europe. he observed specimen was an adult Isabelline Shrike perched on a Russian Olive Eleagnus angustifolia about 6 m from the observer. he bird was identiied as a male (Figure 3). It had a typical structure of a shrike. he bill was greyish with dark edges. he supercilium was thin and white to creamy in colour. he mask was black, running from the forehead across the lores to the ear coverts. he primaries were blackish with buf edges. here was a small whitish patch at the base of the primaries, visible as a small speculum. he upperparts were uniformly isabelline-grey, the underparts pale creamy buf, with a rich orange tone, from the chin to the ventral region – the overall appearance was more uniform, with less contrast between the upper- and underparts than in phoenicuriodes. he rump and tail were bright rufous, although the rump was paler than the uppertail. he buf supercilium, lack of contrast between upper- and underparts, along with the rich orange tone of the latter and the bill pattern permitted reliable identiication as isabellinus. he reported observations are considered the irst two records of the Isabelline Shrike in Bulgaria. Both were accepted by the Bulgarian National Rarities Committee (BUNARCO) and included in Category A of the Bulgarian list. Both records it the temporal patterns of the species' occurrence in Europe. Contrary to most eastern vagrants in autumn, a relatively high percentage of birds are adults, which was also the case in Bulgaria (van der Laan & CDNA 2008). he correlation between weather conditions and the appearance of avian vagrants is not straightforward (Newton 2008), but the strong winds may have played a part in the occurrence of the second bird. Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Dragan Chobanov, Borislav Georgiev, Jurij Hanžel and Stefan Patchedjiev for their help and advice. Povzetek Bledi srakoper Lanius isabellinus gnezdi v širokem pasu od Irana prek osrednje Azije in severne Kitajske do Mongolije. Prezimuje v osrednji in vzhodni Afriki, Pakistanu in Indiji. 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