Lesser Grey Shrike

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iLesser Grey Shrike
Conservation status
Least Concern (LC)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Laniidae Genus: Lanius Species: L. minor
Binomial name
Lanius minor Gmelin, 1788

The Lesser Grey Shrike (Lanius minor) is a member of the shrike family Laniidae.

It is similar in appearance to the Great Grey Shrike Lanius excubitor and the Southern Grey Shrike L. meridionalis. It breeds in southeastern Europe and into Asia.

This species prefers dry open lowlands, and is prominent on telephone wires.

It is slightly smaller than the Great Grey Shrike, and has a black forehead and relatively longer wings.

This medium-sized migratory passerine eats large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder".

It is a scarce vagrant to western Europe, including Great Britain, usually as a spring overshoot.

Courtesy Doug Newman - Photographed at Faan Meintjies Nature Reserve, South Africa.

[edit] References

• BirdLife International (2004). Lanius minor. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern