Red Backed Shrike - Male Stock Image

This is the Red-backed Shrike - male (Lanius collurio) is a member of the shrike family Laniidae. This bird breeds in most of Europe and western Asia and winters in tropical Africa. This migratory medium-sized passerine eats large insects, small birds, voles and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a larder. 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. Underparts are buff and also vermiculated.