Lanius collurio

Common name is the red-backed shrike. Red-backed shrikes are birds common throughout continental Europe and south & eastern Africa. They live in fields with some higher-up places to perch and like driving their prey into thorny bushes to let the plants stab them for them. The males, females, and juveniles are all different colours but mostly look the same.https://ebird.org/species/rebshr1 They seem like they're probably town kind of birds as they perch on fence posts and telephone wires. It looks like they also sometimes pass through the eastern coast of Britain while migrating. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/red-backed-shrike It seems that they might have once bred and nested here too, I'm not sure what happened to make them stop, if that's true. Along with its relative the great grey shrike, they have a dark reputation in Britain. The name "Lanius" comes from butcher or executioner in Latin. Along with stabbing bugs in bushes they also grab at their prey- including small mammals like mice- and stab them straight up (down?) on tree sticks This is an example of animal tool use. Its names in other countries include translations like "war angel", "suffocating angel", and "little criminals". We really tried to clean its reputation up, haven't we? They were also thought to be poisonous or venomous (I don't entirely understand this one- why would it stab its prey if it was venomous? But in reality these sorts of rumors aren't supposed to make sense). There seems to be some artistic portrayals showing them with the hooked beak of a raptor, and this intrigues me.https://compleatbirder.wordpress.com/tag/shrike-folklore/
== References ==
Category:Shrikes
Category:Eurasian birds
Category:African birds