Brown Shrike

Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) is a medium-sized shrike with warm brown upperparts, pale underparts, a black eye mask and a hooked bill. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds across northern and eastern Asia and migrates south, watching open scrub and farmland from perches before seizing insects and small vertebrates, sometimes impaling prey. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).