Red-backed shrike

Latin name: Lanius collurio

Morphological description
Male: brown back, gray head with broad black band, black tail, and light belly. Female almost entirely brownish in color, with a scaly creamy white belly.

Habitat
The red-backed shrike reaches its highest densities in dry intra-Alpine valleys (Valais, Graubünden). It inhabits semi-open landscapes with a diverse structure of hedges and isolated bushes and a high density of arthropods; thorny thickets surrounding poor grasslands or extensive pastures are particularly suitable, but it also colonizes other environments such as vineyards, orchards, fallow land, etc.

Behavior
Often perched at the top of a thorny bush, it gets its name from its ability to capture large insects, which it then impales on the thorns to form a food store. It is a long-distance migrant that spends the winter in the southeastern half of Africa.

Reproduction
The nest is often built at a low height, well hidden in dense bushes. The female lays 5-6 eggs and the young can be seen outside the nest in July.

Diet
Insects, especially large ones (beetles, grasshoppers, etc.)

Observation period
From mid-May to August