Rufous-backed Shrike

I have always thought that the Shrikes are a special species of birds - they look like prey birds in structure, with hooked bills and strong talons, but are just slightly larger than a bulbul. In fact, these birds do feed off small rats and such animals in addition to insects. The Shrike I have seen most often near Shimoga is Rufous-backed Shrike, also called Long-tailed Shrike, which has a greyish head and upper back, with reddish-brown lower parts (The word Rufous means reddish-brown) and a longish tail which enables us to distinguish this bird from other similar-sized birds when viewing from a distance.

Unfortunately I have not explicitly noticed the special characteristic of Rufous-backed Shrike - Salim Ali notes that the Rufous-backed Shrikes are remarkable imitators of sounds made by other birds and animals, including those of frogs, and exhibit very good memory for these sounds. These can be seen most often on electric wires near rice fields while driving out of Shimoga.

Scientific name for this bird is Lanius Schach.