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ShrublandCup nestMedium · 63 g
What the Great Grey Shrike sounds like
ID tip
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.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Great Grey Shrike
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 8 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is October, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Great Grey Shrike
The map shades 91 countries with regular records, and 6 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in United States, Canada, Albania, Kenya, Japan, Iceland.
About the Great Grey Shrike
The great grey shrike is a large and predatory songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Iberian grey shrike, the Chinese grey shrike and the American loggerhead shrike. Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Brown ShrikeLanius cristatusThis shrike is mainly brown on the upper parts and the tail is rounded.
Long-tailed ShrikeLanius schachThe long-tailed shrike is a typical shrike, favouring dry open habitats and found perched prominently atop a bush or on a wire.
Southern FiscalLanius collarisThis is a fairly distinctive 21–23-cm long passerine with white underparts and black upperparts extending from the top of the head down to the tail.
Side by side: Great Grey Shrike vs Loggerhead Shrike · Great Grey Shrike vs Red-backed Shrike · Brown Shrike vs Great Grey Shrike · Great Grey Shrike vs Long-tailed Shrike · Great Grey Shrike vs Southern Fiscal
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