Lanius collurio
Silhouette: Zeynel Cebeci · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The red-backed shrike (Lanius collurio) is a carnivorous passerine bird and member of the shrike family, Laniidae. Its breeding range stretches from Western Europe east to central Russia. It is migratory and winters in the eastern areas of tropical Africa and southern Africa.
The red-backed shrike was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Lanius collurio. The genus name, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as "butcher birds" because of their feeding habits. The specific collurio is from Ancient Greek kollurion, a bird mentioned by Aristotle. The common English name "shrike" is from Middle English *schrike, *schryke, from Old English sċrīc, "shriek", from the same root as shriek and screech, referring to the bird's shrill cry or call.
This 16–18 cm-long (6.3–7.1 in) migratory bird eats large insects, small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder." This practice has earned it the nickname of "butcher... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red-backed Shrike sighting in Jerusalem on a given day, based on 582 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 63rd most-seen of the 192 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September and October
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Red-backed Shrike in Jerusalem on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Jerusalem's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 90 mm in January.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-backed Shrike sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 49
Of the 49 cities where we can rate Red-backed Shrike sightings, Jerusalem ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Izmir (Turkey, about 20%), Antalya (Turkey, about 10%) and Istanbul (Turkey, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-backed Shrike is recorded against all the birds logged in Jerusalem (582 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
