The Isabelline Shrike is a soft brown colour with a pink-beige front, red-brown tail and the black
bandit mask common to adult shrikes. The back and wings can also be grey but the tail is always rufous, giving the alternative name of the Red-tailed Shrike.
Top row shows the male. Female and juvenile have some speckling on the front, a paler bill and a lighter bandit mask.
It breeds in south Siberia, Central Asia and Western China and winters in India/Arabia.
All photos on this page were taken by Alexandra Makhnina.
There are 2 "red-tailed" shrikes from Asia: the Isabelline above and the Turkestan (see link below), both similar to the related
Red-backed Shrike, L. collurio, of which they used to be considered subspecies. The Isabelline has paler, less-rufous upper parts and
less contrast with the yellowy buff under parts. The supercilium is pale buff, the mask and face less contrasty, scalloping less marked and belly less white.
The name is the giveaway: Isabelline means yellowy brown, named after Queen Isabella of Castille who vowed not to change her underwear until the
Moors were driven from Spain.
Both birds have a grey-crowned, grey-backed subspecies with red tail: L. i. speculigerus for the Isabelline.