mm, no wonder I couldn't identify it from your description - I was trying to think of some sort of laughing thrush or even a real thrush. This is a shrike, I'm thinking Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach although the tail doesn't look very long from this angle.
Thank you! In my defence: a) I am not very knowledgeable about birds, and b) my students told me it was a Chinese Hwamei, which put me on the wrong track entirely.
The ones round here seem to have a lot more red on their belly than many of the images online. Local variation I assume.
It may be a guess but by the shape of the beak and the colouring of the under body and length of tail I would go for Red-backed Shrike - Lanius collurio
The head colouring of the grey crown goes straight into the black face mask with no white colouring between the two
mm, no wonder I couldn't identify it from your description - I was trying to think of some sort of laughing thrush or even a real thrush. This is a shrike, I'm thinking Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach although the tail doesn't look very long from this angle.
Thanks everyone. The first shrike I have ever seen wild! Or indeed anywhere. Interestingly Adrian I could have seen Red-backed Shrike in England but never did. If I had hopefully I would identified this one a little easier!
There don't seem to be many shrikes held in European collections. Are they hard to keep, or is the food impaling habit a little much for visitors?
