With only three pairs nesting in Britain each year, red-back shrikes are among the rarest birds to breed in the UK each year, with changing land use and loss of habitat to blame for the rapid decline of the species.

Appearance & Identification

What do Red-backed Shrikes look like?

Male and female red-backed shrikes have different colouring, with males being far more distinctive and easy to identify. Male red-backed shrikes have a bluish-grey head, a wide black mask around their eyes, a white chin and throat and a bright chestnut back. Their tail is black and they have creamy underparts. Their black bill is thick and sharply hooked.

Females have similar markings, but their colours are not as vibrant or remarkable, with more muted tones of brownish-grey replacing the bold black and chestnut plumage of the male. Females have a pale eye stripe above a brownish band across their cheek. Their flanks have a pinkish-buff wash and are lightly flecked with black. Their bill is similar in shape to the male’s but lighter in colour.

Juvenile red-backed shrikes are similar in colouring to females, but are overall more brown and mottled in appearance, with less clear markings and more speckled barring visible across their entire bodies.

Male Red-backed shrike

Female Red-backed Shrike

How big are Red-backed Shrikes?

Red-backed shrikes are larger than house sparrows but are more slender. Males and females are the same size, falling into the range below:

• Length: 17 cm to 19 cm (6.7 in to 7.5 in)
• Wingspan: 24 cm to 27 cm (9.4 in to 10.6 in)
• Weight: 25 g to 35 g (0.9 oz to 1.2 oz)

Male (left) and Female (right) Red-backed shrikes perching on a branch

Calls & Sounds

What sound does a Red-backed Shrike make?

Male red-backed shrikes can be heard making a hoarse ‘tschack’ call to mark their territory and to attract females early in the breeding season.

Skilled mimics, red-backed shrikes’ song repertoire expands to include snippets from songs heard from other birds on their breeding grounds, such as chaffinches, starlings, blackbirds and great tits.

Female Red-backed Shrike sitting on a branch singing

Diet

What do Red-backed Shrikes eat?

Red-backed shrikes have a rather brutal approach to handling their prey, catching anything from insects to small mammals (particularly voles), birds, and reptiles, and skillfully dismembering it before eating.

They hunt from perches, swooping to catch their prey and killing it by either beating it on the ground and decapitating it. It is then carried to a sharp ‘butchering’ thorn or twig, where it is impaled and cached ahead of being picked apart and eaten.

Some berries and fruit may also be eaten later in the autumn, during migration.

What do Red-backed Shrike chicks eat?

Baby red-backed shrikes are fed small and soft prey by their parents, caught and prepared in their trademark style of impaling and ‘butchering’ into manageable chunks.

Red-backed Shrike eating a grasshopper

Habitat & Distribution

What is the habitat of a Red-backed Shrike?

Red-backed shrikes thrive in sunny habitats, with open terrain for hunting interspersed with higher lookout perches and thorny trees.

Bare earth and short grassy landscapes are optimal for seeking rodent and reptile prey. Mountain slopes are favoured environments, as well as heathland and neglected swathes of agricultural land.

What is the range of a Red-backed Shrike?

The widest breeding range of red-backed shrikes extends from the British Isles in the west, across Europe and into Asia as far as Siberia to the east, south as far as Italy, Sicily and the Balkan States, and across Turkey into north-west Iran.

Red-backed shrikes leave their breeding grounds by October each year, heading to winter territories in south and east Africa, from Somalia and south-east Kenya to South Africa.

Where do Red-backed Shrikes live?

With an estimated global population of 6.3 million breeding pairs across Europe, the outlook is not as bleak for red-backed shrikes elsewhere as it is in the UK. The species range has contracted in other parts of Europe too, notably Spain, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, but numbers are increasing in Norway.

Red-backed Shrike in natural habitat

How rare are Red-backed Shrikes?

In the UK, red-backed shrikes now rank as one of the rarest breeding birds, with a maximum of three pairs nesting each year.

Across their wider range, they are more widespread and common, however in the UK sightings are almost unheard of, apart from during migration passage, when numbers may temporarily increase to up to 250 individuals.

Where can you see Red-backed Shrikes in the UK?

Red-backed shrikes are now extremely rare as breeding birds in the UK with a maximum of three pairs raising their young there each season. Isolated reports of breeding have been recorded in the Shetland Isles, Wales and in south-west England in recent years.

Chances of a sighting improve during spring and autumn migration, with reports along the eastern and southern coast of Scotland and England, particularly during May to June and August to October.

Red-backed Shrike in natural habitat

Lifespan & Predation

How long do Red-backed Shrikes live?

Little data is available about how long red-backed shrikes live, but their average life expectancy is thought to be between three and five years. The oldest ringed individual lived to 10.1 years. Breeding occurs for the first time at one year of age.

What are the predators of Red-backed Shrikes?

Common nest predators of red-backed shrikes include jays and magpies, while birds of prey such as kestrels and sparrowhawks target adult birds as well as nestlings.

Are Red-backed Shrikes protected?

Red-backed shrikes are listed as Schedule 1 birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981, which offers additional protection to their eggs, young and nests from being disturbed or destroyed, as well as safeguarding the birds themselves against being killed, injured or taken into captivity.

Are Red-backed Shrikes endangered?

Due to the species’ numbers falling to a dangerous level in the UK, red-backed shrikes are classified with Red status on the British Birds of Conservation Concern list, and are close to extinction levels.

Numbers of breeding red-backed shrikes in Britain fell dramatically, by 88.3 percent between 1968 and 2011. Habitat loss due to changes in agricultural practice and increased use of pesticides which impacts the availability of suitable prey, are thought to be a major factor in this steep decline.

Red-backed Shrike collecting nesting materials

Nesting & Breeding

Where do Red-backed Shrikes nest?

Typical nesting sites chosen by red-backed shrikes are found low down in dense thorny shrubs and trees, such as hawthorn, bramble and blackthorn.

A loose platform nest is crafted from grasses, stems, roots and lichen, lined with softer grasses, hair, fur and reeds.

When do Red-backed Shrikes nest?

Nesting takes place from mid-May until July, when red-backed shrikes usually lay one clutch of between 4 and 6 eggs. Second clutches are less common, and if they are attempted, typically contain fewer eggs.

What do Red-backed Shrike eggs look like?

Red-backed shrike eggs vary in colour, from pale pink to light green, marked heavily with olive green, brown or reddish-purple speckles.

Eggs measure 22 mm by 17 mm (0.9 in by 0.7 in), and are incubated mostly by the female with occasional assistance from the male, for 12 to 16 days.

Do Red-backed Shrikes mate for life?

Red-backed shrike pairs form on breeding grounds in late spring, although occasionally may form during spring migration. Pairs remain together for the duration of a single breeding season, raising a maximum of two broods.