Re: Shrike - BIRD OF THE MONTH JANUARY 2014
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:55 pm
Common Fiscal (Fiscal Shrike)
27.1.2012 - around Nossob
1.4.2013
27.1.2012 - around Nossob
1.4.2013Red-backed shrikes are slightly larger, but slimmer, than house sparrows. The male is unmistakable with a bluish-grey head, black mask, bright chestnut back and thick hooked black bill. Shrikes like to perch prominently on the tops of bushes, fence posts and telephone wires, where they have a good view of potential prey.
Items caught are then taken to a larder where they are impaled on a thorn or wedged in a fork.
Females have rusty brown upper parts and paler underparts with crosswise streaked patterning. They also have less distinct dark brown masks. Juveniles resemble females but have more reddish brown backs and more prominent streaked patterning also on their upper parts.
Red-backed Shrike’s legs are blackish (male) or brownish grey (female). Their beaks are black (male) or dark brown (female). They have dark brown irises.
Distribution and habitat[edit]
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.
Male
Female
