Red-backed shrike

About

The Red-backed shrike is a bird slightly larger than a sparrow, about 17 cm long. The male is easy to recognize: gray head, wide black stripe across the eye, chestnut-brown back, and pinkish breast. The female is brown, with a fine scaly pattern on the breast. The shrike's beak is strong, with a hook at the end, like a small predator.

It hunts from a perch: sitting on the top of a bush, fence post, or wire, it looks around, twitching its tail, and pounces on its prey. It catches beetles, grasshoppers, bumblebees, and occasionally lizards, mice, and nestlings. It impales excess prey on the thorns of blackthorn, hawthorn, rosehip, or on barbed wire—this way, it divides it into pieces and makes a reserve for bad weather.

In the Carpathians, this bird inhabits open areas with bushes: pastures, meadows, forest edges, abandoned gardens, and hedges along field roads. It occurs from the foothills to mountain meadows, provided there are thorny shrubs for nesting.

The shrike arrives late, in May, and by August-September it departs for wintering in Africa south of the equator. It builds its nest in dense thorny bushes not far from the ground.

In many countries of Western Europe, the species has become rare due to the disappearance of hedges and large insects. Therefore, it is included in Annex I of the EU Birds Directive. In the Carpathians, where pastures with shrubs have been preserved, the shrike is still common.

Where in the Carpathians

Orange — where naturalists recorded the species (GBIF, CC0/CC BY); a blank area does not mean it is absent.

Countries

Ukraine · Slovakia · Czechia · Poland · Romania · Hungary · Serbia · Austria · BG

Mountain ranges

Skole Beskids, Bieszczady. In other countries: 🇷🇴 Piatra Craiului, 🇭🇺 Bükk, 🇨🇿 Moravian-Silesian Beskids, 🇷🇴 Trascău and Metaliferi Mountains, 🇵🇱 Żywiec Beskids, 🇸🇰 Slovak Ore Mountains, 🇭🇺 Zemplén Mountains, 🇸🇰 Western Tatras, 🇸🇰 Low Tatras, 🇷🇴 Bucegi Mountains, 🇸🇰 Slovak Central Mountains, 🇭🇺 Börzsöny and Cserhát

Altitude belts

Foothills (below 600 m) · Beech forests (600–1200 m)

When to see it

From naturalists’ observations in the Carpathians (iNaturalist, research grade): the darker the cell, the more often the species is seen that month.

Protection and rules

Not listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine. Included in Annex I of the EU Birds Directive.

FAQ