Bird Guide

Great Grey Shrike vs Red-backed Shrike

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)

Great Grey Shrike

Lanius excubitor

Medium63 gShrubland

An adult great grey shrike is a medium-sized passerine about as large as a big thrush, measuring from 22 to 26 cm (8.7 to 10.2 in) long. It typically weighs around 60 to 70 g (2.1 to 2.5 oz), although some subspecies are noticeably smaller or larger, and even in the nominate subspecies adult weights between 48 and 81 g (1.7 and 2.9 oz) are recorded. The wings are around 11.4 cm (4.5 in) and the tail around 10.9 cm (4.3 in) long in the nominate subspecies, its bill measures about 23 mm (0.91 in) from tip to skull, and the tarsometatarsus part of its "legs" (actually feet) is around 27.4 mm (1. Voice: The male's song consists of short pleasant warbling strophes, interspersed with fluid whistles. The individual phrases may go like tu-tu-krr-pree-pree or trr-turit trr-turit.... To announce that it has become aware of someone straying into its territory – be it a female or male of its species or a large mammal – it gives long shrill raspy whistles like trrii(u) or (t')kwiiet.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Christian Kahle · CC0
Photo: uid101125 · CC BY 4.0
Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio)

Red-backed Shrike

Lanius collurio

Small28 gWoodland

This 16–18 cm-long (6.3–7.1 in) migratory bird eats large insects, small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder." This practice has earned it the nickname of "butcher bird." 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 birds the upperparts are brown and vermiculated.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Recording: Christian Kahle · CC0
Photo: le0p0ld_d · CC BY 4.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Great Grey Shrike and Red-backed Shrike.