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Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Lanius senator

Identify the Woodchat Shrike by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.

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The Woodchat Shrike is a striking, chestnut-capped shrike that breeds across southern Europe, the Middle East and north-west Africa and winters in tropical Africa. It favours open, lightly wooded landscapes with scattered trees, orchards and olive groves, hunting mainly insects from exposed perches. It has declined in parts of Europe.

Did you know?

  • Its chestnut cap inspired the name “senator”, after the coloured stripe on a Roman senator's toga.
  • It impales prey much less often than many other shrikes.

Voice

Sound

About the species

Identification

The male has a chestnut crown and nape, a broad black mask reaching the forehead, a black back with prominent white shoulder patches, a white rump and white underparts; the bill is stout. Females are duller, and young birds are grey-brown and scaly with pale scapulars. Told from Red-backed Shrike by the chestnut head and black, not chestnut, back.

Family

Laniidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

black, white, brown

About the habitat

Dry, open country with scattered trees and scrub – orchards, olive groves and wooded pastures, especially with bare or sandy ground.

Diet

Mainly large insects, especially beetles, as well as other invertebrates and occasionally small mammals or birds. Indigestible parts are regurgitated as pellets.

Behaviour

Hunts from exposed branches or fences, dropping to the ground or sallying after flying insects, but otherwise often keeps within leafy cover. It gives a harsh alarm call and a varied song that can include imitations of other birds. Pairs build a sturdy cup nest in a tree, often a fruit or olive tree. It is a loop migrant, using different routes in spring and autumn.

Sources

Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Woodchat shrike (Lanius senator senator).jpg

Sound: Sternanita3, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canto_del_alcaudón_comùn.ogg

Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodchat_shrike

See also