Scientific name: Lanius collurio Linnaeus, 1758
Bird group: Shrikes
Field characters. 17 cm. Male with grey crown and neck, rufous-brown upperparts, black feathering from base of bill onto ear coverts, forming mask, black flight feathers and tail, but with white on sides of tail base and outer tail feathers. Throat white, breast and belly pink. Female without grey on head and often without black mask, though sometimes with a dark brown one. Whole upperparts brown, with some barring on shoulders and rump. Underparts whitish, usually barred on breast and flanks, but barring variable and sometimes absent. Juvenile like female, but strongly barred all over. Bill black and strong, with hooked raptor-like tip. Most often seen sitting in top of bush, on dead branch, barbed wire or other protruding perch. When disturbed, hides in bush. Flicks and swings tail from side to side. Like other shrikes, has habit of impaling prey on thorns.
Voice. Calls 'tcheck', 'chack', rasping 'whree'. Song rather soft, warbling with harsh notes, not unlike Garden Warbler, but often mimicking other species.
Distribution. Locally common summer visitor, but absent in many areas, and generally declining.
Habitat. Found in half-open country with thorny thickets, like dunes with scattered bushes, cultivated areas with hedges, edges of woodland, marshes, etc.
Food. Large insects and small vertebrates, like rodents and lizards. Looks for prey from perch, swoops down to catch it on ground or in air and takes prey back to perch, where either swallowed or stored on thorn.