Shrike Shrublands
The Red-backed Shrike – the butcher bird with an inordinate fondness for impaled beetles – is essentially extinct in the UK. We get a few each spring, and some even manage to find one another and a territory in which to rear young successfully. But numbers are so few and so scattered that prospects for sustained re-colonisation seem rather bleak.
The Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds projected that, as the climate change continues to change, some aspects of the climate in the UK may well improve for Red-backed Shrikes. The UK climate is already entirely suitable for the species. It’ll just get more widely better. But habitat isn’t. Red-backed Shrikes will not track this improving climate if we do nothing to make more welcoming habitat.
The species is showing signs of a bit of a resurgence in northern parts of it range from which it recently contracted. It’s increasing in density and regaining some lost range in parts of the Netherlands, France and southern Spain. If the density of shrike territories continues to increase in parts of the near-continent, pairs might continue to spill into any available, vacant habitat just across the Channel. More individuals might begin to show up on our south and east coasts during spring migration. There’s as yet no indication of an increase in spring Red-backed Shrikes on the east and south coast. We should keep an eye on these data.
Given that the Climatic Atlas, and recent trends in north west Europe suggests some potential for future re-colonisation, is there anything we can do now to improve prospects for Red-backed Shrikes?
Yes – we can create habitat. And Red-backed Shrike is the perfect ambassador for one of our least appreciated, by most biodiversity-rich, habitats: grassland-shrub mosaics or, to coin a marketing term, Shrike Shrublands. We can describe the perfect Red-backed Shrike territory based on the ample research that’s been conducted on this species across its European range. We can then imagine scaling up to an area capable of supporting several pairs. That scaled-up block of habitat is what I’ve called a Shrike Shrubland.
So what is a pair of Red-backed Shrikes looking for in the perfect summer nesting territory?
Red-backed Shrikes love species-rich grasslands with well-scattered, small patches of shrubs. Not dense thickets. The dense shrub thickets created by wall-to-wall whip planting is useless for shrikes. Just small patches of Field Rose, Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Bramble, with the odd emergent Wild Apple or Wild Pear, embedded in flower-rich grassland.
That grassland must comprise a mosaic with some tussocky areas, and lots of very short sward and bare and disturbed ground. Dirt tracks too. The shrikes sit on, say, an isolated wild rose twig, or an isolated fence post, positioned in open habitat where they can see the ground. And from there they pounce on beetles exposed as they rush between the tussocks, piles or dung or corpses. On still days they’ll dart up to catch a passing bumblebee or dragonfly on the wing. But their main mode of prey capture is generally sitting, waiting and pouncing on beetles on the ground. The longer grassy areas will also ensure the shrubland is grasshopper-rich: Red-backed Shrikes love grasshoppers almost as much as beetles and bumblebees!
Now, above I’ve described an early successional habitat - a Shrike Shrubland - that’s straightforward to create. This habitat could be rather short-lived – the product of natural regeneration as an abandoned patch of arable farmland slowly reverts back to woodland. Or it can be stable – similar to open New Forest heathland and acid grassland with scattered, browsed shrubs.
We have targets for native woodland creation, and a fair portion of these targets could be met through assisted natural regeneration, rather than wall-to-wall whip planting, in which case we could be creating a shifting mosaic of Shrike Shrublands, areas of natural regeneration that will suit shrikes in their early decades.
How big should a Shrike Shrubland be to work for shrikes? Well, shrikes usually have a territory of around 1.5ha. So a 5ha Shrike Shrubland could support a couple of pairs of shrikes.
I’ll re-emphasise the key ingredients: aside from the structure of the habitat already described, the site must have an abundance of larger invertebrates. Red-backed Shrikes love Coleoptera and Hymenoptera first and foremost. And they also love Orthoptera and Odonata. So, lots of ground beetles, especially those associated with chemical-free cattle dung, and lots of bumblebees. The dung, some dead wood and animal corpses and grassy mosaics will suit the beetles. Lots of flowering herbaceous plants and shrubs, and tussocky grassland, will draw in the bees. Orthoptera will like the short and long swards (grasshoppers) and shrub patches (bush crickets). Scattered clean-water pools and restored streams and seepages will draw in the Odonata.
Disturbed ground – rabbits, boar, those cattle and even the occasional ploughed patch – will provide invertebrate egg-laying and basking opportunities, and the perfect substrate for shrikes to land as they target scurrying prey. Brash piles could be scattered about in the early years, before the shrubs develop, to induce warren-formation by (admittedly non-native) rabbits. Strands of wire and fence posts positioned out in the open are loved by shrikes too.
The various elements above would render a Shrike Shrubland a great habitat for many species considered to be conservation priorities in the UK: Turtle Doves, Cuckoos, maybe Whinchat, Adders, Hedgehogs, various bats etc.
Creating shifting mosaics of Shrike Shrublands across the British countryside could deliver substantial biodiversity benefits, and may even host returning Red-backed Shrikes.
For an expanded account of Shrike Shrubland creation and management, see my booklet (https://amzn.to/46iFP5w) and here: https://www.stevecjones.uk/books
Let’s do it!