A beautiful fellow, quite easy to spot in his (her) adult form. Male and female look very similar, the male is overall darker and has more black on his forehead. The Juv. is more greyish / white and lacks the black and brown.
He is a whole 17-19cm long and breeds in open wooded areas with glades, some cultivations and trees, preferring fruit orchards. Requires some sandy or bare ground in his territory.
Woodchat Shrike (male), Rotkopfwürger, Lanius senator
(Info: Collins Bird guide)
Saw this odd looking little bird in Hungary, 2008. I think, it was probably the first time that I askd for help in a forum to ID a bird for me. I regret that I didn’t shoot in RAW then already. Looking through those shots and trying to ID some of the birds, I see the major difference it makes.
I think he’s a good example as to how birds looks can sometimes decieve you and make it hard for us to ID them 
I am currently going through my archives again, started with Hungary 2008, since I got my D300 then and there’s a bunch of rubbish cluttering up my HD that needs to be deleted. While doing that I am collecting bird data to put into eBird and update my Life-List with the sightings. What a hobby,… 
Gosh, looking at those photos makes me miss it. But at least I have the photos to look at. AND looking at the bright side: I get to see a lot of new birds here too and nature ain’t all THAT bad,….
If you want to read more Info about this Red-backed Shrike, check here on Opus, I’m too lazy busy 
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This fellow was sitting in a tree near the beach at Fahaheel (the cemetery area?), surrounded by a wall so I couldn’t get closer. The weather was quite dreary and this is the Best I could get with my 18-200mm.
But I got the confirmation that this fellow’s a Daurian Shrike. As far as I know the sightings were only in the Jahra area. I am glad I can show that there are some ‘real’ birds down here in Mangaf and Fahaheel too
And yes, you guessed it right, another Lifer for me (even though I don’t count the subspecies as a Lifer, but maybe one day he makes his own species).
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