Oldest Dutch shrike back from Africa

This video is about red-backed shrikes and their nest.

Translated from the Stichting Bargerveen in the Netherlands:

Oldest shrike of the Netherlands is back

Thursday, May 10, 2012

The ‘Year of the Shrikes’ 2012 has started now for the red-backed shrike as well. Last week, week the first reports of males arrived and on Tuesday the first female was discovered. And not just any female! Nearly seven years of age, this ‘old lady’ now is the oldest known shrike in the Netherlands.

Next Saturday is the official kickoff of the shrike season in the Bargerveen in Emmen, with lectures, excursions and the introduction of a shrikes’ walk app for smartphones.

The red-backed shrikes are back from Africa. Last week several males were seen. On Tuesday, May 8th the first female was discovered. On 30 July 2005, this female was ringed while still a chick. She is now almost seven years old. This makes her the oldest female shrike ever observed in the Netherlands! Only once before, in 2005, in the Netherlands a seven-year-old shrike was discovered, a male in the Bargerveen. Most red-backed shrikes do not become older than three years, but abroad sometimes animals of eight years old are reported. Should our “old lady” return from Africa next year, then that will be absolutely a Dutch record age.

Red-backed shrikes nesting near Vaals, Limburg: here.

Rare shrike Lanius lahtora pallidirostris on Texel: here.

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