Wildlifeof India
Red-backed Shrike
Crows, Drongos, Orioles & Shrikes
Photo: (c) SteveM4560, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 (May be cropped or resized)
Lanius collurio
Basic stats
Diet
Large insects, small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards
Habitat
Open habitat (SoIB)
Range
Breeds from western Europe to central Russia; winters in eastern and southern tropical Africa
Size
16–18cm
The red-backed shrike is a carnivorous shrike 16–18 cm long, a migratory bird that 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, which earned it the nickname butcher bird. The male's upperparts are reddish with a grey head and a black stripe through the eye, while in the female and young the upperparts are brown and vermiculated (Wikipedia, general species account).
It breeds in most of Europe and western Asia and winters in tropical Africa. The cached account does not describe its occurrence in India. SoIB 2023 lists it as a passage migrant of open habitat that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).
Quick answers
- What does the Red-backed Shrike eat?
- Large insects, small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards
- What habitat does the Red-backed Shrike live in?
- Open habitat (SoIB)
- Where is the Red-backed Shrike found?
- Breeds from western Europe to central Russia; winters in eastern and southern tropical Africa
- How big is the Red-backed Shrike?
- 16–18cm