The great grey shrike is a large and predatory songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Iberian grey shrike, the Chinese grey shrike and the American loggerhead shrike. Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.
Great grey shrike
L. e. "melanopterus" wintering in Poland
Indian great grey shrike Lanius excubitor ssp. lahtora
Adult male (top) and female L. e. excubitor with fledging young (bottom)
Shrikes are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in two genera.
Shrike
Shrike on a Winter Tree, silk painting by Li Di (李迪). China, Song dynasty, 1187 AD
A bee presumably caught and impaled by a shrike
Image: Southern White crowned Shrike, Eurocephalus anguitimens, gleaning ants from the early morning soil at Marakele National Park, South Africa (13952312157)