Bell shrike
Laniarius major (Hartlaub, 1848)
Status not recordedsongbirds
The bell shrike (Laniarius major) is a species in the family Malaconotidae, order Passeriformes. Recorded adults weigh 48 g to 56 g.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the bell shrike
- Weight
- 48 g – 56 g
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- 2.5
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the bell shrike live?
Not recorded
Is the bell shrike endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the bell shrike classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyMalaconotidae
- genusLaniarius
- SpeciesLaniarius major (Hartlaub, 1848)
Synonyms Laniarius aethiopicus casatii, Laniarius ferrugineus major, Telephonus major
Other names and names in other languages (28)
- TRBOEnglish
- Tropical boubouEnglish
- Tropiese WaterfiskaalAfrikaans
- Stor BubuDanish
- TropenwürgerGerman
- tropika malakonotoEsperanto
- Bubú tropicalSpanish
- DuettolepinkäinenFinnish
- Grand GonolekFrench
- スズゴエヤブモズJapanese
- Tropische FiskaalDutch
- tropeboboNorwegian
- dzierzyk równikowyPolish
- bubu-tropicalPortuguese
- Пегий бубуRussian
- mäsiarik bublavýSlovak
- Tropski bubu svračakSerbian
- tropikbusktörnskataSwedish
- Tropikal BubuTurkish
- гонолек тропічнийUkrainian
- 热带黑鵙Chinese
- Großer BoubouwürgerGerman
- Tropik-WürgerGerman
- Ethiopische FiskaalDutch
- picanço-tropicalPortuguese
- Тропический бубуRussian
- Пегий певчий сорокопутRussian
- 熱帶黑伯勞Chinese
Relatives of the bell shrike
Other species in the same genus Laniarius.

Yellow-crowned gonolek
Laniarius barbarus

Crimson-breasted shrike
Laniarius atrococcineus

Swamp boubou
Laniarius bicolor

Black-headed gonolek
Laniarius erythrogaster

Slate-colored boubou
Laniarius funebris

Ethiopian boubou
Laniarius aethiopicus
CompareBell shrike vs Yellow-crowned gonolekBell shrike vs Crimson-breasted shrikeBell shrike vs Swamp boubouBell shrike vs Black-headed gonolek
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the bell shrike?
An adult bell shrike weighs 48 g – 56 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
What kind of animal is the bell shrike?
The bell shrike (Laniarius major) belongs to the family Malaconotidae in the order Passeriformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Bell shrike (Laniarius major). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-shrike
“Bell shrike (Laniarius major).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-shrike.
@misc{bell_shrike_2026,
title = {Bell shrike (Laniarius major)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/bell-shrike},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}