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;Lanius collurio | ;Lanius collurio | ||
| − | [[Image:Red-backed_Shrike.jpg|thumb|550px|right|Photo by Pavlik | + | [[Image:Red-backed_Shrike.jpg|thumb|550px|right|Photo by Pavlik </br> This shows the male and female. Location: Saratov oblast Russia]] |
==Identification== | ==Identification== | ||
Revision as of 17:52, 20 September 2007
- Lanius collurio
Identification
The male’s upper parts is red. Its head is grey with black stripe through the eye. Underparts are tinged pink, and the tail has a black and white pattern similar to that of a wheatear. In the female and young birds the upperparts are brown and vermiculated. Underparts are buff and also vermiculated.
Distribution
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.
Taxonomy
Habitat
Heathland
Behaviour
The diet includes large insects, small birds, voles and lizards.
Bird Song
<flashmp3>Lanius collurio (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
