Grey Shrike (Lanius Excubitor)
The grey shrike is a medium sized bird
of silver-grey colour with a longish black & white tail and looks
somewhat like a house sparrow only slightly bigger. It has a
distinctive black ‘mask’ from the bill through the eye. A
conspicuous white patch unfolds on the wings when the bird is in
flight. The grey shrike has a rather harsh almost raucous call but
when the breeding male is out impressing its female counterparts it
sings a pleasing tinkling song. The bird is also a good mimicker of
other birds’ calls, so don’t be surprised when you hear a
crow and look up to see the grey shrike.
¤ Found In
This bird inhabits the semi-desert areas scattered with thorny bushes
all along the dry areas of Pakistan and Western India and also a small
area in eastern India. The grey shrike is known to be a local migrant
and has been reported down south in a patch covering parts of Tamil
Nadu and Sri Lanka in the winters. Its habitat offers it a large
variety of lizards, mice and insects and the grey shrike seem to enjoy
the abundance.
It is known as the ‘butcher bird’ because it has this
strange habit of killing in excess and storing the leftovers impaled
on thorns. But even the butcher bird needs to run when it is
threatened and it does it by diving down from its perch and flying
real close to the ground for a good 20m before shooting up to perch
again. |
