22

Great Grey Shrikes are medium-sized shrikes. Their front is faint-buff to light-grey, with a white chin patch, which contrasts sharply with wide black eye stripes and a grey crown, nape of the neck and mantle. The flight feathers are black, with a small wing patch. They have prominent white wing patches on the coverts. The long, narrow tail is black. The irises are dark-brown. The short, strong, slightly hooked bill is dark-grey. The legs and feet are dark-grey. Juveniles are slightly paler and have vermiculated plumage basically all over.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Great Grey Shrike ("Northern Shrike") is available HERE .

There are in total 9 races of Great Grey Shrikes, which can be collated into three groups, a Western Eurasian group, an Eastern Eurasian group and a North-American group (for classification details see, e.g. Wikipedia ). The Western Eurasian group comprises races "excubitor", "homeyeri" and "leucopterus". Races "siberius", "bianchii", "mollis" and "funereus" form part of the East Eurasian Group, while races "borealis" (the Great American Shrike) and "invictus" are members of the North-American Group. Race "koenigi" is found only on the Canary Islands.
Most races of Great Grey Shrikes are migratory. Sedentary populations are found only in central to eastern Europe and mid-latitude western Siberia (race "excubitor") and in near-coastal southern Alaska (race "invictus"). The migratory populations breed in the sub-arctic regions of all northern continents, roughly between 55 and 70 degrees geographic latitude, across the entire breadth of the continents. They spend the northern winters in the moderate climate zone, between roughly 30 and 50 degrees latitude, again spanning the entire breadth of the land masses in the northern hemisphere.

In Arabia, Great Grey Shrikes, race "aucheri", are usually found during their passage between Africa and Asia. We spotted them on the North coast of Oman.

Race "aucheri"