Appearance:

A social, compact, buff bird with full crest, short neck, black bib, black mask and red wax-like extensions to secondaries. Tips of primaries and tail yellow. May be confused with starling when seen in silhouette or when flying, but note fuller head, rounder and more compact body and shorter bill. Flight includes frequent glides, even when changing directions. Not very shy in winter. Hunts insects in flycatcher-like manner in summer.

Sound:

Contact call weak, but distinct and typically alert one to the presence of a flock. A thin, high pitched, ringing "tzrrrrrrr". Song more or less a variation on the contact call.

Contact call:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

Sounds:Recorded by Rob van Bemmelenhttp://www.xeno-canto.org/CC license

Appearance:

Male with brown back, pinkish white underparts and a bluish grey head with a black eye mask. Female more dull with barred underparts. Juvenile like female, but upperparts also barred . Tail brown with white edges in all plumages. Females and juveniles easily confused with other southern/eastern or vagrant shrikes like; Brown Shrike, Isabelline Shrike, Woodchat Shrike and Turkestan Shrike. Differs from those in white sides of tail, barred rump, mantle and scapulars, scaly underparts and dark or yellowish base of bill (not pink).

Sound:

Call a hard "check check" (like striking two rocks together), and a variable nasal "twee" Song surprisingly varied with many expert imitations of small passerines, interwoven with bell-like ringing and dry chirping sounds. May be confusing and hard to identify if bird not seen. Song not very loud, but phrases can be very long.

Alarm call, song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC