Red-backed Shrike Call MP3s
A clear recording of the Red-backed Shrike's harsh, chattering call, suited to identification and breeding-survey use.
Also known as
Recordings (2)
About this species
Around 17 cm in length, the Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) is a passerine songbird: the male grey-headed with a black bandit mask and a rich chestnut back. It favours thorny scrub, hedgerows and bushy commons.
The male sings a quiet, chattering warble laced with mimicry of other birds. It hunts large insects, lizards and small birds, impaling surplus prey on thorns as a larder. It impales surplus prey on thorns and barbed wire, building a grisly larder. On migration it moves through Greece and the Mediterranean in great numbers, a familiar bird of field, wood and garden.
Legal use
The Red-backed Shrike is a Schedule 1 protected species under the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act, where it is now an extremely rare and closely monitored breeder, and it is likewise protected under the EU Birds Directive across its European range, including in Bulgaria, where it is a widespread breeding bird and a valued insect-eating farmland species. We have found no jurisdiction where it is legally hunted as game; it is a conservation priority species in several European countries. This recording is intended for identification and breeding-survey use, not hunting. Because rules on recordings and disturbance of Schedule 1 or nationally protected species vary by country, please check our full country-by-country disclaimer before field use.