Page 358 - Complete Birds of Britain and Europe (DK - RSPB)

SHRIKES/ORIOLES
Family Laniidae
SHRIKES

HRUSH-LIKE IN SHAPE and general form,
Tshrikes have stout, sharp, hooked bills and
strong feet, and they are every bit as predatory as
the small falcons.They drop to the ground onto
prey, from a perch, or catch insects and birds in
flight: a shrike will pursue and catch a bird almost
as big as itself.
Shrikes are migratory, the Great Grey Shrike
moving to western Europe in winter, others going
to Africa. Most species are suited to warmer parts
of southern and eastern Europe, where there are
abundant large insects. Intensive farming in many
areas has reduced their numbers and the Red-
backed Shrike has only recently been lost as a
breeding bird in parts of its original range.
Some species have obvious sexual differences in
IMMACULATE MALE
This Lesser Grey Shrike is in plumage, others are more or less the same.
perfect spring plumage, the Identification is likely to pose problems only with
pink breast at its strongest migrant juveniles in autumn.Then precise details
and the black of the wings of bill, head, wing, and tail patterns are necessary to
yet to fade browner.
confirm more general impressions of size and shape.

Family Oriolidae

ORIOLES

EVERAL SPECIES look vividly
ELONGATED SHAPE
Scoloured in books; some may A Golden Oriole is rather
disppoint a little in real life.The male thrush-like in form but longer-
Golden Oriole, however, is always a wonderful bodied and longer-winged,
and with much shorter legs.
sight if seen well, a vivid buttercup yellow and
black. Strangely, it is remarkably elusive.
The song is loud and obvious, always an easy
clue to the presence of an oriole, but seeing it
is still difficult most of the time. Orioles live in
dense foliage, typically in poplars or oak wood-
land, and even their bright colours are hard to
spot in the dappled light and shade of a wind-
swept leafy canopy.
Male and female usually differ but old females
become almost as bright as males. In winter,
orioles migrate to Africa, where they come into
contact with several other similar species. In
Europe,nothing else is similar except for a poorly
seen Green Woodpecker in flight, which recalls
the female oriole, and no other bird is remotely
so yellow and black as the adult male.

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