Endangered UK Birds - Red-backed Shrike
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The Red-backed Shrike bird (Lanius collurio) is a member of the shrike family Laniidae.
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 Red-backed Shrikes, the upperparts are brown and vermiculated. Underparts are buff and also vermiculated.
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This 16 - 18 centimetres long migratory passerine eats large insects, small birds, voles and lizards.
Like other shrikes the Red-backed Shrike hunts from prominent perches and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a 'larder'.
The Red-backed Shrike breeds in most of Europe and western Asia and winters in tropical Africa.
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The Red-backed Shrikes' range is decreasing and it is now probably extinct in Great Britain as a breeding bird, although it is frequent on migration.
The Red-backed Shrike is named as a protected bird in Britain under a Biodiversity Action Plan. The Red-backed Shrikes' decline is due to overuse of pesticides and scrub clearance due to human overpopulation.
The Red-backed Shrike breeds in open cultivated country with hawthorn and dog rose.
Endangered Birds -
Aquatic Warbler |
Capercaillie |
Corn Crake |
Eurasian Wryneck |
Great Bittern |
Grey Partridge |
Osprey |
Red-backed Shrike |
Red Kite |
Scottish Crossbill |
Skylark |
Song Thrush |
Stone-Curlew
