Yellow-billed shrike

Appearance

The yellow-billed shrike is 18 cm long with a long tail and short wings. The adult has mottled brown upperparts and streaked buff underparts. There is a brown eye mask and a rufous wing patch, and the bill is yellow. Sexes are similar, but immatures show buff fringes to the wing feathers.

Behavior

This is a conspicuous and gregarious bird, always seen in groups, often lined up on telephone wires. It is noisy, with harsh "swee-swee" and "dreee-too" calls.

Habitat

The yellow-billed shrike is a common resident breeding bird in tropical Africa from Senegal east to Uganda and locally in westernmost Kenya. It frequents forest and other habitats with trees.

Reproduction

The nest is a cup structure in a bush or tree into which four or five eggs are laid. Only one female in a group breeds at a given time, with other members providing protection and food.

Food

The yellow-billed shrike feeds on insects which it locates from prominent look-out perches in trees, wires or posts.