1st winter Brown Shrike at St Agnes October 2020

 The 1st winter Brown Shrike was a super find by Graham Lawlor at Chapel Porth, St Agnes on our week off birding, if he keeps on birding the area I'm sure it'll be the first of many great finds in this under watched part of Cornwall. 

When the news broke of an interesting and elusive Shrike which was on the way home from our day's birding in West Cornwall it was always going to be worth a check. Some back of camera photo's posted also showed an interesting bird which surely wasn't 'just' a Red-backed so we hurried to Chapel Porth in the hope of sorting the bird out either way. There is something about a mystery bird twitch I really enjoy and the whole experience with the Brown Shrike was such a great learning oppurtunity as we all had to work on the bird to secure the ID. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to find a rare Shrike one day and this experience has made me that little bit more prepared for that moment.

As we arrived local birder John Chapple was the only person on site (we later learnt Graham was still in the area searching). Thankfully John had seen it well some ten minutes before our arrival and hadn't seen it fly off. Soon more local birders arrived and I was pleased to see amongst others Steve Rowe , Mike Spicer & Brian Mellow who were also armed with decent cameras. The search was broadened for the bird but I had a sneeky suspicion it was probably just sat skulking in the same hedge and the sharp eyed John Chapple spotted it again. Phone calls were made and we all got brief views of this very interesting looking bird. It was still there, we had time on our side and a good group of birders. With a team effort we could nail the identity once and for all!

Typical of the species it was a real skulker to begin with, most often sat within the hedge rather than atop like you would expect a Shrike to do. I'm sure there are exceptions but this seems to be how Brown Shrike behaves and is a very good pointer to begin with that you could be onto something good!

Aged as a juvenile (note vermiculations on the flanks). The relatively smooth brown coloration to the upperparts and striking head pattern showed well even at range as did the short winged, long tailed structure of the bird.

Closer views showed off the birds head pattern in more detail with the eye stripe being broad and black behind the eye, yet faded in front of the eye. 

    

The subdued color to the tail which matched the mantle yet contrasted with the brighter colored rump are good features of Asian Brown Shrike. An Isabelline type would tyically show a rufous brown colored rump , upper-tail coverts & tail contrasting well with the grey/brown mantle.  A Red-backed would show the opposite affect as they have warmer brown upperparts that contrast with a subdued colored tail.

At this angle you can see that five primary tips project past the longest tertial. In Red-backed Shrike 6-7 primary tips project past the tertials and in Turkestan/Daurian Shrike 7-8  tips project past the longest tertial giving all three species a longer winged / shorter tailed appearance.

     
     

As the bird flies away it shows the typically narrow graduated tail pattern of Asian Brown Shrike. In scope views you could see that the outer tail feather (T6) was very short and created a 'step like' pattern to the tail. 

As you can see there are an important set of ID features to secure the ID of a juvenile Shrike so build a picture up of the bird and concentrate on :

Shape and structure of head and body

Head Pattern

Upperparts tone and coloration of mantle, rump and tail at different angles in neutral light

Color tones and pattern of flanks and underparts

Tail pattern

Primary Projection beyond the longest tertial

It may not be an easy task to get all of these features but my advice would be to take a deep breath and remember that it's a Shrike so it's probably going to hang about for a few hours at least. It will most likely be skulky so prepare yourself for a patient bit of birding (Graham watched the bird for over 5 hours until he got the views he needed) and perhaps most importantly put the news out quickly as a group of birders at different angles will help pin the bird down and a team effort with plenty of eyes on the bird and good photographs really does help!

Many thanks to Steve Rowe, Pete Roseveare and Mike Spicer for the use of their photographs.