Red-backed Shrike

Lanius collurio

Impales beetles, lizards, and mice on thorns to build a larder. Migrates to sub-Saharan Africa and back.

Population: 21.9–34.7 million mature individuals globally (2018 estimate), stable trend; ~75% of range in Europe (16.4–26 million mature individuals there)
Habitat: Open, sunny, warm country with scattered thorny bushes, hedgerows and scrub interspersed with short grass or bare ground for hunting perches; also woodland edges/clearings, heathland, orchards and olive groves — a mosaic of tall and low vegetation
Fun fact: Known as the "butcher bird," it impales surplus prey — large insects, lizards, and even small rodents or birds — on thorns or barbed wire to create a larder it returns to later.
Range: Breeds across temperate and Mediterranean Europe (excluding northern/southwestern fringes) eastward through western Siberia/Central Asia; a long-distance migrant that winters mainly in eastern and southern Africa. Formerly bred in Great Britain but is now only an occasional/sporadic breeder there (BTO: population crashed, now almost extinct as a UK breeder)
Diet: Mainly large insects (beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, bees, wasps); also small vertebrates such as lizards, small birds, rodents (notably voles during population peaks) and occasionally amphibians; takes berries in late summer/autumn before migration
Size: 0.17 m
Wingspan: 0.25 m
Lifespan: 5 years

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