Long-Tailed Shrike - England's rarest visitor

Long-Tailed Shrikes: England's Rarest Visitor!

Yes, I was going to do an ocean-based blog next, but this was so amazing that I had to write about it. 10 species of shrike have been seen in the UK - the red back shrike (a former native species, now extinct on our shores), great grey shrikes, lesser grey shrikes, steppe grey shrike, brown shrikes, woodchat shrikes, Duarian shrikes, masked shrikes, Turkestan shrikes, and the rarest - long tailed shrike. In July of this year, a long-tailed shrike arrived in Fife, Scotland for the first time in 26 years - the second sighting of this shrike ever in Britain. Then, days later, another arrived - this time in the Cotswolds, the first ever individual of its species in England. Travelling over 8,000 kilometres from Central Asia, these birds are very much off course. Before this year, it was the literal rarest bird ever seen in the UK. So, when one arrived an hour away from me, I had to see it! But first - here's a small fact file about the bird. 

Scientific name: Lanius schach

Size: 25 cm including tail, 30-50 grams

Lifespan: 3-4 years

Native range: China, Nepal, India, and South-East Asia

Habitat: Scrub, meadows, hedges, open country and farmland

Diet: Crickets, grasshoppers, mice, voles, shrews, lizards and frogs

Here the shrike has a cricket under its foot

UK Records: November 2000, Outer Hebrides. July 2026 - Fife, Scotland. July-August 2026 - Eastleach, Gloucestershire-Oxfordshire border

Fun fact - shrikes are also known as 'butcher birds' for their habit of impaling their prey on thorns or wires to cache for later.

While we don't usually go a long way to see a super rare bird, this time it was different. Such a rare bird that it's only been seen twice before - and only an hour away? It was irresistible. After a sausage roll and an hour drive, we made it to Eastleach, where the shrike resided. Driving past soaring buzzards and singing yellowhammers, we made our way down a country lane where a farmer had a make-shift carpark, seizing the opportunity and charging a fiver per car. Luckily for us, the bird is very site faithful - sticking to a couple of hedgerows around one field. As we arrived to the fields after walking down a track, we heard of it's morning doings; that near a stone wall, it had cached a vole that it had caught in the long grass, spearing it on the twisting bramble. While they usually eat crickets and grasshoppers, larger items of prey like this aren't unheard of by any means. Days before the bird had been coming onto the ground to forage directly in front of the hedgerow, but now as over-zealous birders pushed further forward, it had retreated to a fence on the other side of a wall,  resorting to hunting in the long grass on that side. We tried to stay back in hopes that it would come out into the open, but too many people were too close for it to regain it's confidence. After waiting for 40 minutes, we saw some hurried movements and whispers of other birdwatchers as they pointed their fancy cameras and binoculars to a fence post. We edged closer... and there it was. Just sat there, looking very proud of itself. It sat there for a few seconds, before diving down into thick grass and returning with a small cricket. At first, we panickily took some far-away shots, which didn't exactly turn out well. 

However, after a few minutes - when it became clear that at least for some time this bird would stay and hunt - we managed to calm ourselves down, get the camera on a tripod and make sure we had the optimal angle. Unfortunately at first the silence was repeatedly broken by the loud noises our camera made every time we dared to even

. lightly touch a button, however after a while we figured out how to turn it off. We weren't alone though - someone's phone went off with some alarm or notification multiple times. Once we were sure that the camera wouldn't scare the bird off, we managed to get amazing pictures. Here are some of the best:

It stayed for another 25 minutes or so, much to our delight, as we watched it repeatedly diving and coming back up with crickets and grasshoppers. We drove away that day knowing we had seen the one of the rarest birds in the UK!

An Isabelline wheatear, a very rare bird on our shores

If you want to see this bird for itself, you'll have to be quick - as it's a juvenile that has finished malting, its thought to be leaving within the next few days. If you do, make sure you're respectful to the bird - don't be too over-enthusiastic, give it space, and try to not make a noise. However, a question remains: if the long-tailed shrike - with only 3 records - isn't the rarest bird seen in Britain, then what is it? Multiple birds have only been seen once here, including great crested flycatchers, and the now extinct eskimo curlew. Isabelline wheatears (an Asian species related to our native Northern wheatears) were only seen once until January of this year when another arrived. If you want to be up to date with rare birds coming to the UK - trust me, they'll be a lot more with the incoming Autumn migration - have a look at the Rare Bird Alert for recent sightings. I hope you learnt something today, thanks for reading,

IsaacP,   Per[Nature] 🌿

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