Brown Shrike
The brown shrike (Lanius cristatus) is a bird in the shrike family that is found mainly in Asia. The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits.This bird breeds across northern and eastern Asia from Mongolia to Siberia .
It is migratory, wintering south to India and found to have high fidelity to their wintering sites, often returning to the same locations each winter. The timing of their migration is very regular with their arrival in winter to India in August and September and departure in April. They feed mainly on insects. Like other shrikes, they impale prey on thorns. Small birds and lizards are also sometimes preyed upon. They typically look out for prey from a perch and fly down towards the ground to capture them. You can see the tip of the beak (upper) is slightly chipped-off. May be due to fight for establishing wintering territories or hunting efforts.
It was really difficult to differentiate brown shrike from common woodshrike since both are having eye-bands and appeared similar. I think the tail of the brown shrike is longer and the body is bit brown tinged. I photographed this bird near the Pathapettai lake (10.810946, 78.850714) near Thiruverumbur. It was full of ducks, cormorants, terns and other birds.
It is migratory, wintering south to India and found to have high fidelity to their wintering sites, often returning to the same locations each winter. The timing of their migration is very regular with their arrival in winter to India in August and September and departure in April. They feed mainly on insects. Like other shrikes, they impale prey on thorns. Small birds and lizards are also sometimes preyed upon. They typically look out for prey from a perch and fly down towards the ground to capture them. You can see the tip of the beak (upper) is slightly chipped-off. May be due to fight for establishing wintering territories or hunting efforts.
It was really difficult to differentiate brown shrike from common woodshrike since both are having eye-bands and appeared similar. I think the tail of the brown shrike is longer and the body is bit brown tinged. I photographed this bird near the Pathapettai lake (10.810946, 78.850714) near Thiruverumbur. It was full of ducks, cormorants, terns and other birds.
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