Bull-headed Shrike

Searches for prey from trees by wagging its tail.

Scientific name	Lanius bucephalus
English name	Bull-headed Shrike
Japanese name	百舌
Classification	Aves
Classification details	Passeriformes Laniidae
Full length	20cm
Distribution	Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu

Characteristics

In kanji, it is written as ``百舌(Mozu)'', and as its name suggests, it can imitate the calls of various other birds such as the Chinese white-eye and the white-eye. They are brown overall, and males have a black eye line. The wings are gray with white stripes on the edges.

It likes to perch near the tip of a branch, and its tail hangs down in a circle.

Ecology

They have a strong territorial awareness, and have a single territorial territory outside of the breeding season. It is an animal food that mainly eats insects and amphibians, searching for prey from the top of the tree and eating the captured prey on the branches.

It performs a behavior called 'hayanie' (early sacrifice) in which it stabs captured prey into autumn branches. We don't know exactly why they do this, but it seems to be a habit unique to shrikes eating in trees.

Habitat

It was perched on the tip of a tree branch on the riverbed of Asakawa, Hachioji City. It twirled its tail, looked around, and occasionally landed on the ground. It seems to like the top of trees, and when it moves, it only takes a moment to get down to the ground and jumps to a branch. The flying speed was not that fast, and it stopped after moving about 10 meters, and squealed with a unique cry.