Which shrike breeds in Europe and Asia before migrating to eastern and southern Africa?

The red-backed shrike breeds in Europe and Asia before migrating to eastern and southern Africa.

It is a summer visitor across much of its breeding range, arriving to hunt in open country with scattered bushes. After breeding, red-backed shrikes travel south through Europe and the Middle East toward African wintering grounds. The species is one of several shrikes whose annual cycle spans enormous distances.

The red-backed shrike is a predatory songbird. It catches large insects and sometimes small vertebrates, then may impale surplus prey on thorns or barbed wire. This behaviour gives shrikes their memorable reputation as “butcher birds.”

The species is not the same as the great grey shrike, which often remains farther north in winter or follows different movements. Male red-backed shrikes are especially recognizable by their black eye mask, grey head, and reddish-brown back.