Woodchat Shrike
(Lanius senator)

The last record of this bird in Southend was in 1991.

The Woodchat breeds in southern Europe, the Middle East and northwest Africa, and winters in tropical Africa. It breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with orchard trees and some bare or sandy ground.

This migratory medium-sized passerine eats large insects, small birds, voles and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a larder.

This species often overshoots its breeding range on spring migration, and is a rare, but annual, visitor to Great Britain. The Balearic race badius has occurred in Britain around four times as a vagrant, and has also been recorded once in Ireland.

Woodchat Shrike. Two tree Island. 13/07/08. Photo by Steve Arlow (SOG). More photographs of this bird can be found on Steve's website at: http://www.birdersplayground.co.uk/.