Short Description
The red-backed shrike is small with a hooked bill.
Males can be identified by their chestnut-brown backs and grey head with a striking black eye stripe. Their underparts are pale.
Females are inconspicuously red-brown with pale underparts. Their brown eye stripe is hardly noticeable on their brown heads.
Features
Red-backed shrike
Lanius collurio
black eye stripe in males
Gesang (mit Imitationen)
Tretzel (CC BY-SA 3.0)
In the city
Red-backed shrikes can be found on the verges of the cultivated landscape such as railway embankments, bushy uncultivated land, along motorway or former military training ranges. Their preferred nesting places are high thorny bushes such as sloe, hawthorn or dog rose.
Fun Facts
Red-backed shrikes impale larger prey (insects, small vertebrates) on thorns or spikes. The purpose of this is to divide the prey and to keep them in storage.
They imitate the song of other birds.
Red-backed shrikes are migratory birds. They can be seen in Germany from April to October. They spend the winter in the eastern Mediterranean or in tropical Africa. Dry regions are often avoided.
- Endangerment level Germany: not endangered
Sources
Männchen, Kaeptn chemnitz, CC-BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neunt%C3%B6ter.jpg
Weibchen, Frebeck, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neunt%C3%B6ter_Weibchen.jpg
Jungtier, Maren Winter, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Neuntoeter-Jungvogel.jpg
Bejcek, V. (1988) Zugvögel, Hanau/Main: Verlag Werner Dausien.
Makatsch, W. (1989) Wir bestimmen die Vögel Europas, Leipzig: Neumann Verlag.
Voigt, A. (2006) Exkursionsbuch zum Studium der Vogelstimmen, Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer Verlag.
Svensson, L. (2011) Der Kosmos Vogelführer - Alle Arten Europas, Nordafrikas und Vorderasiens, Stuttgart: Franckh Kosmos Verlag.
Harrison, C. (1975) Jungvögel, Eier und Nester aller Vögel Europas, Nordafrikas und des Mittleren Ostens - Ein Naturführer zur Fortpflanzungsbiologie, Hamburg und Berlin: Verlag Paul Parey.
Witt, K. & Steiof, K. (2013) Rote Liste und Liste der Brutvögel von Berlin, 3. version, 15.11.2013. : Berliner Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft e.V. (eds.) Berliner Ornithologischer Bericht, volume 23, Berlin: Berliner Ornithologische Arbeitsgemeinschaft e.V., 1-23.
NABU – Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V. (2016) Rote Liste der Brutvögel Deutschlands. 5. version, published August 2016, URL: https://www.nabu.de/tiere-und-pflanzen/voegel/artenschutz/rote-listen/10221.html (Accessed: 07.04.2017).
Page „Neuntöter“. : Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date of last revision: 30.01.2016, 21:32 UTC. URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Neunt%C3%B6ter&oldid=150864967 (Accessed: 08.03.2016).
Artenfinder (2016) Lanius collurio (Neuntöter), URL: https://arteninfo.net/elearning/voegel/speciesportrait/3069 (Accessed: 20.04.2016).