Bull-headed Shrike

Bull-headed Shrike

Searches for prey from trees by wagging its tail.

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.

Picture of Bull-headed Shrike

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.

Pictures

Introducing a picture of Bull-headed Shrike.

Picture of Bull-headed Shrike1|Perched on the tip of a branch.
Perched on the tip of a branch.
Picture of Bull-headed Shrike2|Wings are gray.
Wings are gray.
Picture of Bull-headed Shrike3|A male with a black overeye line.
A male with a black overeye line.
Picture of Bull-headed Shrike4|There is a white crest on the edge of the wing.
There is a white crest on the edge of the wing.
Picture of Bull-headed Shrike5|The beak is quite sharp.
The beak is quite sharp.
Picture of Bull-headed Shrike6|It gets whiter toward the middle of the belly.
It gets whiter toward the middle of the belly.
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Pictures of Bull-headed Shrike.

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