Isabelline Shrike

The isabelline or Daurian shrike is a shrike with pale sandy plumage, the isabelline colour that gives it its name, and a red tail. Young birds can be told from young red-backed shrikes by the much sparser fine barring on the underparts. It was formerly treated as the same species as the red-backed and red-tailed shrikes (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with thorn bushes, across a wide area from the Caspian Sea to north and central China, and migrates south for the winter. It hunts from prominent perches, taking large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards, and impales prey on thorns or barbed wire as a larder. In India it is a winter migrant with a large range. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 50% and a current fall of about 6.5% a year, and rates it a High conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).