Great grey shrike
- Great grey shrike
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- Keemu linnud
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Great grey shrike. Photo: Kauro Kuik
Introduction
Latin Lanius excubitor L.
Estonian Hallõgija
Also known as: shrike, white wisky John, grey shrike
Status in Estonia
Breeding, migratory and wintering bird.
Description
The great grey shrike is a large grey-and-white shrike with a black eye mask, short and rounded black wings, a big patch on the base of primaries and a long, round-tipped, white-edged black tail. The sexes are similar. The top half of the juvenile is dirty grey, while the underside is dirty white with a lot of brownish grey streaks.
Size
Body length 21–26 cm, wingspan 11–12 cm, body mass 56–80 g.
Similar species
Red-backed shrike.
Distribution
It is widespread in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere, extending from forest tundra to desert. It is distributed inconsistently throughout Estonia, depending on the availability of suitable breeding biotopes.
Population
Estonia has 300–400 breeding pairs.
Occurrence in Estonia
It arrives in late March or early April and departs between mid-September and mid-October. At the same time, great grey shrikes from the north pass through here.
Diet
Its diet consists of insects and their larvae, mice, amphibians, reptiles and small birds.
Habitat
It inhabits raised bogs, transition mires, raised bogs with shrubs and sparse forest bogs and sometimes flood-meadows.
Nesting
The nest is nearly always built in a bog pine, usually near the previous year’s nest. The nest is constructed from dry pine twigs and branches on the outside, dry grass in the middle and a thick layer of bird feathers on the inside. In May or June, the female bird lays 4–7 eggs with a whitish to greenish-grey colour and with grey and brown markings, which she then incubates for 14–18 days. Both parents feed the chicks. The chicks are nidicolous, leaving the nest at three weeks of age. The parents look after the chicks that have left the nest for quite some time.
Conservation status and protection
It belongs to the protected species of category III. The greatest threat is habitat destruction and degradation caused by peat mining and drainage as well as the elimination of wet transition mire patches that are vital for their food source. Since the great grey shrike is tied to cultivated landscape throughout the non-breeding phase, changes in the open and semi-open landscape (intensification of agriculture, loss of semi-natural communities) pose a threat to the species.
Distribution and population in Lääne County
The great grey shrike is an uncommon breeding, migratory and wintering bird in Lääne County. Grey shrikes are easiest to observe in Lääne County outside of the mating season, which occurs from September to April, when they can be found in cultivated areas or along the coast. During this time, it is worthwhile to travel across the agricultural landscape, when birds frequently watch for pray on power lines or in the tops of bushes.
Great grey shrikes nest in our raised bogs. During the summer, they can be observed on the Tuhu bog or Marimetsa raised bog hiking trails.