The great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a magpie-sized bird; when stretched out, it measures 24 cm. We will recognize it by its gray, white and black plumage. The great grey shrike has a gray head (the forehead is gray too!), nape, shoulders, back and rump, while its throat, chest and abdominal part are white. A strong bill with a downward-curved tip is black, and a broad black stripe runs from it past the eyes. Its wings and tail are raven-black, their blackness interrupted only by a few white patches on the wings and a white border on the tail.
The great grey shrike is a conspicuous bird that likes to perch in exposed places from which it has a good view of its surroundings. It is easiest and most often observed perched on the top of a shrub or tree, on an electrical or telephone line, or on the top of a bean plant in a distant field. From its observation post it sometimes comes down to the ground if it thinks it has spotted some small rodent, such as a mouse or vole. It is active by day, preying from ambush on a variety of animals. The main part of its diet consists of large insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, mantises and the like, but it also hunts lizards, small birds and small mammals. It is known for its habit of impaling captured prey on thorns or barbed wire, or pinning it among branches, and thus storing it for later.
The great grey shrike is a migratory bird that, in the warm part of the year, lives and breeds in northern and southwestern Europe and in Africa. It prefers expansive open landscapes, which are here and there interrupted by hedgerows and individual shrubs. In April and May it nests in a cup-shaped nest that it weaves in a dense shrub. It does not nest here, but it can be observed during spring and autumn migration and wintering.
