Red-backed Shrike

16 - 18 cm

10 years

Red-backed Shrike preys primarily on large insects, using a 'sit-and-wait' tactic from perches to ambush its food. It is known for impaling prey on thorns or barbed wire, serving both for storage and to tear the food apart. This behavior is a distinctive dietary adaptation of red-backed Shrike.

Red-backed Shrike typically inhabits temperate grasslands with interspersed shrubs or hedgerows, orchards, forest edges, and clearing regions characterized by a diverse mosaic of vegetation. Their preferred environment offers a sunny, warm, generally dry setting with level or gently sloping terrain. Red-backed Shrike is found in areas with shrubs or low trees, providing vantage points for hunting. It frequents a range of habitats, including overgrown agricultural patches, heaths, open downs, neglected gardens, and areas adjacent to roads or railways. While avoiding extremely dry locales, in Europe, red-backed Shrike is often associated with cattle-breeding landscapes, inhabiting altitudes mostly up to 1000 meters, reaching higher in selected mountainous regions. On its wintering grounds in southern Africa, red-backed Shrike selects habitats with a similar structure to its breeding areas, showing a preference for savanna, grasslands, and open bushland with abundant insect life.