Hard to find and super difficult to photograph but we got it! Great grey shrike.

Great grey shrike spend the year with us. They have sat on our bird feeding table in minus 33 and today one arrived at our bird feeding station. All of the Bramblings, Tits, Finches etc promptly fled! The shrike then flew up to a nearby tree, which then emptied of all the Fieldfares and Redwings sitting there!

The Great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor). The scientific name of the great grey shrike literally means “sentinel butcher”: Lanius is the Latin term for a butcher, while excubitor is Latin for a watchman or sentinel. This refers to the birds’ two most conspicuous behaviours – storing food animals by impaling them on thorns, and using exposed tree-tops or poles to watch the surrounding area for possible prey.

Here are the photos I managed to take. I always feel privileged to encounter the Shrike here in Sweden.