The vagrant but long-staying Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) – a first for the Netherlands – can still be found on the same location. As you can see on the website of the birding community in the Netherlands “waarneming.nl” this 1st winter Shrike near the German border between Doetinchem and Emmerich still attracts twitchers and ornithologists. The bird has been present in Netterden – in the Netterdensche Broek – in Gelderland for almost four weeks now. The Brown Shrike had been found near Gendringen at the January, 18th 2014, in the utmost south-east of the province of Gelderland not far from the German border. So far, this individual has being quite cooperative and could be seen in beautiful sunshine yesterday February 12th 2014 sitting on barbed wire and willow posts. Sometimes the Shrike is also sitting in a some small tree with thorn bushes opposite a gravel pit, just 300m away from the road. Distances are still far and some cases of unrespective behavior of photographers and twitchers has been reported. Thus, I added a image of a young Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) from the regular wintering ground in Thailand, where this species is very common and normally very well approachable.
The Brown Shrike, Lanius cristatus, is one of the smaller representatives in the shrike family. It was formerly considered conspecific (of, or belonging to, the same species) with the closely-related Red-backed Shrike, Lanius collurio, and Isabelline Shrike, Lanius isabellinus. The regular range of the Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) extends from central Siberia over Kamchatka, Sakhalin and northern Japan. In the south it extends to the Altai Mountains, Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea and China. The habitat is the boreal and arctic zone and steppe and desert zones and mountain regions. Thus an observation in the Netherlands is a real exception.
As this bird is a first for the Netherlands and a bird also very rare for the Western Palearctic, you can see some images of proof of the bird in Gelderland in the Gallery
In his “„Handbuch der Voegel Mitteleuropas“, Band 13/II ” Passeriformes ,Sittidae – Laniidae” Urs N. Glutz of Blotzheim does not mention Lanius cristatus for Central Europe. But this bird is migratory, wintering south to India, southeast Asia (Thailand) and Indonesia. In winter, Brown Shrike is found in mangroves and open (often secondary) forest, often close to human habitation. This species is a rare vagrant to Europe. In Europe, this species has been observed up to that sighting only eight times before and only once so far in Central Europe, where an adult female was observed on Helgoland in October 2001. One individual has been recorded from Nova Scotia, Canada.
To cope with the growing demand for top shots of the rarer species of the Palearctic Bird-Lens is keen to enrich the range of pictures of birds you can find in the western palearctic. Trips to remote places like this one to capture images of rare birds of western palearctic were very successful. More images you find in the gallery in the “Pictures Shop”. Just give me a message, if I could serve you with an image needed before the new pictures are online.