Red-backed Shrike

The red-backed shrike is a 16–18 cm predatory songbird. Males have reddish-brown upperparts, a grey head, black eye-mask, pinkish underparts and a black-and-white tail; females and young are browner and finely barred. It watches from exposed perches and takes large insects as well as small birds, frogs, rodents and lizards. Prey may be impaled on thorns or wire as a food store, inspiring the name butcher bird (Wikipedia, general species account).

Lanius collurio breeds from western Europe east to central Russia and migrates to eastern and southern Africa for winter. Carl Linnaeus described it under the present binomial in 1758. Its usual range lies far west of Korea, making a Korean occurrence exceptional and in need of strong documentation. The species should be separated from locally expected shrikes using the male's red back and grey crown or, in females and juveniles, the complete combination of pattern and structure (Wikipedia, general species account).