Red-backed Shrike

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Red-backed Shrike
Adult male
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Laniidae
Genus: Lanius
Species: L. collurio
Binomial name
Lanius collurio
Linnaeus, 1758

The Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) is a carnivorous passerine bird and member of the shrike family Laniidae.

Description

This 16–18 cm (approx. 6.3–7.1 inches) long migratory bird eats large insects, small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder." This practice has earned it the nickname of "butcher bird."

The general colour of the male’s upper parts is reddish. It has a grey head and a typical shrike 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 and habitat

This bird breeds in most of Europe and western Asia and winters in tropical Africa. The bird is redlisted as a Least Concern (LC) specie on a global scale, but some parts of its habitat have seen a steep decline in both numbers and breeding pairs, so locally the redlisting can be more alarming.

Great Britain

Once a common migratory visitor to Great Britain, numbers declined sharply during the 20th century. The bird's last stronghold was in Breckland but by 1988 just a single pair remained, successfully raising young at Santon Downham. The following year for the first time no nests were recorded in the UK. But since then sporadic breeding has taken place, mostly in Scotland and Wales. In September 2010 the RSPB announced that a pair had raised chicks at a secret location on Dartmoor where the bird last bred in 1970.[2] In 2011, two pairs nested in the same locality, fledging seven young.[3] In 2012 there was another breeding attempt, but no young were fledged this time, probably due to a prolonged spell of wet weather.[4] This return to south western England has been an unexpected development and has raised speculation that a warming climate could assist the bird in re-colonising some of its traditional sites, if only in small numbers.[5]

  • Adult female in Poland

  • Lanius collurio—MHNT

  • Female

  • ID composite

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Lanius collurio". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013. 
  2. ↑ ""Butcher bird" nests in England after 18 year absence". RSPB.  Retrieved on 10 September 2010
  3. ↑ "Red-backed Shrike breeds on Dartmoor". Birdwatch magazine.  Retrieved 30 December 2011
  4. ↑ "Red-backed Shrike". The Devon Birdwatching and Preservation Society.  Retrieved 15 August 2013
  5. ↑ "Mark Avery's blog: Shrikes.". RSPB.  Retrieved on 30 December 2011

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lanius collurio.
Wikispecies has information related to: Lanius collurio

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