Taxonomy
The Tiger Shrike was first described in 1822 by the Belgian naturalist Pierre Auguste Joseph Drapiez in the Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle. He placed it in the genus Lanius, a group of about 26 species living in open areas across Eurasia, Africa and North America. The name of the genus means "butcher" in Latin, referring to the birds' habit of impaling and storing prey. Within the genus, analysis of calls suggests that the Tiger Shrike is most closely related to the Brown Shrike (L. cristatus) and Bull-headed Shrike (L. bucephalus). It has no recognized subspecies.
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