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Great grey shrike

 

 

The number of great grey shrikes in Estonia is small, and during the nesting period in summer we meet them only very occasionally, maybe somewhere in a bog massif. In autumn and winter encounters are more likely, they often come to hunt passerines in their feeding places – people have not named them tit hawks for nothing. They also hunt small birds in reed banks, and we can see grey shrikes hunting for mice. A part of the grey shrikes nesting in Estonia move towards south in the autumn, and in turn inhabitants from the north arrive here – the proportions between these groups even specialists don’t know -  and in winter nearly a thousand birds may be here.

 

Because of its long tail and contrastingly coloured plumage it reminds a little of a magpie, but half the size, and this proportion should alert an observer. The “tit hawk” itself belongs to the passerines too. Length, tail included, is a quarter of a metre, and the weight around 60-70 grams.

 

It has an upright posture. Back and crown are grey. The eye stripe, wings and tail are black, a white streak separates the grey of the back and the black of the wings, which in turn are decorated with a white band. The outer feathers of the black tail are also white. The beak of the small bird is like that of a raptor, hooked at the tip. The grey shrikes have similarly coloured plumage all year round. The underparts of the male are white, those of the female lightly barred, but that can pass unnoticed, seen from far off.

 

The hunting habits of the “tit hawk” rely on keeping watch. For this a solitary tree, shrub or fence post is suitable; there the shrike can wait in the top for a prey to turn up. An experienced watcher thus will easily discover them. Grey shrikes collect stores when they have had a successful hunt – sometimes you can find half-eaten mice between the twigs of a shrub or even slipped on to a branch: it is their signature.

 

Great grey shrike