14 : Brown Shrike

Brown Shrike - Lanius cristatus.

A post from May 2011 copied across to its hopefully final resting place. 

I am not sure if this is an ordinary Brown Shrike or perhaps a sub-species from the Philippines. I am not counting sub-species in my long journey. I have to give myself half a chance with The Task. I am posting this as a Brown Shrike. I think it probably is just a Brown Shrike. The Philippine subspecies has a "clear grey crown and mantle" which is not so evident on this bird. 

This is my last catch-up post to put me back on a bird a day. This is not best photo today but if you read "The Task" you will note that I reserve the right to post bad photos as necessary in order to "stamp" a species on my web-site.

Yes you guessed it - Yala again, Sri Lanka. One of the 80 or 90 new species I saw in 48 hours. At one point I was seeing one of these birds every 20 or so yards. I love shrikes. They are an "ooh ah" bird for me. Probably because they are extinct as a regular breeding bird in the UK. The Red Backed Shrike held out in Wales and the West country for a while but then died out at its last regular breeding location in 1989. It is only seen on migration now. I expect there is the odd breeding pair but if there is they will be hushed up. So to me shrikes are rare, beautiful and exotic creatures. What a shame. 

They are pugnacious vicious little things and take all manner of small prey from large insects to small rodents, chicks and reptiles. I expect in Sri Lanka geckos, small skinks and the like would have a good chance of appearing on the menu.

This was a first for me and quite a handsome bird with the black bandit mask and buffy tones. I will make up for the poor shot of the bird with another Yala shot. You can see elephants in the same sort of numbers as you can in Africa at Yala National Park - delightful.