A strikingly coloured, delicately built and fine-billed bird, the Bay-Backed Shrike is a beautiful bird, usually found singly, and commonly habituates the area of the Samudram Erie. This is a bird of open country and cultivation, and it inhabits dry, bushy areas with scattered trees or at the edge of woodland.
The most distinctive feature of this bird is its black facial mask extending from the side of the neck through the eyes to the base of the hooked bill, that sits in stark contrast to the grey crown and shoulders and chestnut-maroon upperparts. The upper-wings and long, white-tipped tail are black, and the underparts of the body are whitish with a wash of brown. The bill and legs are black, and a large white patch sits on the primary wing feathers.
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| Strikingly Coloured Bird |
The Bay-Backed Shrike is the size of a Bulbul and is the smallest of the Indian Shrikes. This bird which is widely distributed is generally found singly. This curious bird may also be identified by its rather quiet, pleasant warbling song that is mixed with harsher ‘churring’ notes and much mimicry of other birds calls.
Video of Bay Backed Shrike
This bird which is the same size as the Bulbul flies low and fast between perches and alights upon an exposed branch of a bush or an electricity wire, from which its watches for its insect prey in its characteristic upright position. After spotting its target, it swoops down onto the prey and catches it on the ground. Its diet consists almost exclusively of insects, but small lizards and even mice may also be taken in this way.
Usually, the Bay-Backed Shrike feeds alone or in pairs, but it is always bold and conspicuous when feeding, and during times of abundant prey, it may store its food for periods when food is scarce impaled a sharp point, such as a thorn. Thus secured the prey can be ripped with the Shrike’s strong hooked bill, but its feet are not suited for tearing.
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| Juvenile birds look like washed-out versions of adults. |
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| Juvenile Bird |
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| Nest of Bay-Backed Shrike |
During breeding this bird’s nest is a small, neat cup built from grass, feathers, wool and other fibres and lined with grass. It is placed in a fork of a small tree or a large bush, up to ten metres above the ground, and its territory is defended around this nesting site as well as around favoured perches. A clutch of eggs is laid and incubated by the female for fifteen days, whilst the male brings the female food. The male also supplies all the food for the young nestlings once they have hatched, and they are tended to for around two weeks before they fledge. The Bay-Backed Shrike may produce two broods each breeding season.
