From Opus

Photo by Pavlik
Male and female. Location: Saratov oblast, Russia

Lanius collurio

[edit] Identification

Rufous-brown above and creamy to pink below. Looks 'long' in flight.
Male
Blue-grey head and rump, with a bold black eye-stripe. Black tail with white sides (reminiscent of Northern Wheatear)
Female
Browner; head grey-brown with a dark cheek patch. Crescent-shaped bands on underparts
Juvenile
Brown above with dark bars. Crescent-shaped bands cover the body.

[edit] Distribution

Photo by teodor
Juvenile photographed in August 2008

The red-backed shrike was a fairly common summer visitor to the UK 50 years ago but the last confirmed breeding pair was in 1992 (in Scotland?). It can still be seen on passage. It still breeds - though often at low density - in parts of southern and eastern Europe as well as Germany, Norway and Sweden. According to The Birds of the Western Palearctic - Concise Edition there were an estimated 20,00 - 210,000 pairs in Ukraine in 1986, and the population is fairly stable. Its range extends east to western Siberia, and also to north-west Iran.

The birds winter in tropical and southern Africa.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.

[edit] Habitat

Heathland, overgrown hedges and ditches.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Breeding

Nests in trees, bushes or bramble thickets.

[edit] Diet

The diet includes large insects, small birds, voles and lizards.
As with most other shrike species, it impales it's prey on spikes, thus it is often called the Butcher Bird.

[edit] Vocalisation

[edit] References

1. Wikipedia
2. Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
3. Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
4. Collins Field Guide 5th Edition

[edit] External Links