Isabelline Shrike

isabelline shrike, red-tailed shrike, pie-grièche isabelle, oropendola
Names and conservation status
isabelline shrike, red-tailed shrike, pie-grièche isabelle, oropendola
Nairobi National Park
isabelline shrike, red-tailed shrike, pie-grièche isabelle, oropendola
Nairobi National Park

The Isabelline Shrike breeds in south Siberia and central Asia (race L. i. phoenicuroides, known as Turkestan Shrike) and China (race L. i. isabellinus, known as Daurian Shrike) and winters in the tropics. These two races are sometimes regarded as separate species. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe, including Great Britain, usually in autumn.

This migratory medium-sized passerine eats large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a larder. It breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with thorn bushes.