Great Grey Shrike
Photo: Tisha Mukherjee · CC BY-SA 4.0

Shrikes

Great Grey Shrike

Lanius excubitor

LCLeast Concern
Family
Shrikes (Laniidae)
Order
Passeriformes

Overview

The great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a large and predatory songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Iberian grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the American loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus). Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.
Breeding takes place generally north of 50° northern latitude in northern Europe and Asia.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.