Unfortunately the bird went to roost very early on and so no more then twenty people connected, so fingers crossed its present in the morning. It had earlier been seen fairly frequently perching on top of the bushes, but never allowed close approach as it stuck to the heart of the dense scrub.
The Isabelline Shrike complex is a confusing one, with recent IOC splits indicating a minimum of two species, these being Turkestan Shrike (L.phoenicuroides) and Daurian Shrike (L.isabellinus), whilst Chinese Shrike (L.arenarius) and a sub-species of this are also being considered by Dutch Birding. Plumage wise, the Birling Gap bird is thought to be a Daurian Shrike based only on the plumage features noted, however there are considerable overlaps between all the species and they do hybridise. Hopefully they all get lumped!!
LP got some cracking images which can be seen on his 'beachybirder' blog found on the right side of this page.
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| presumed Daurian Shrike at Birling Gap |
