noun

• A shrike of southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, having black and white plumage with a chestnut head.

  Lanius senator, family Laniidae

  ‘Although the same size as a red-backed shrike, the woodchat gives an impression of being smaller and more compact.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The songbird family of shrikes that is responsible for such carnage is well represented by the woodchat shrike, pictured here grappling with a lizard.’
  • ‘However I did log a woodchat shrike, numerous barn and red-rumped swallows, a veritable swarm of common swifts, and a common buzzard.’
  • ‘A glance at a map shows the woodchat to be well distributed as a summer visitor in much of Europe.’
  • ‘A pair of woodchat shrikes were carrying food and hanging around a couple of bushes.’
  • ‘Young woodchats especially show a lot of white in flight.’
  • ‘The telegraph wires in the fields held a large number of bee eaters, woodchat shrikes and corn buntings, there were several azure winged magpies and large numbers of swallows and martins.’
  • ‘On occasion woodchats have been known to plunder the nests of other birds.’
  • ‘There was a female redstart, a couple of Rüppell's warblers, northern, Cyprus and black-eared wheatears, three woodchat shrikes, chiffchaff, and a tawny pipit.’
  • ‘In spring especially they come alive with collared fly catchers, woodchat shrikes (and occasional masked shrike) and huge flocks of all kinds of warblers.’
  • ‘The stunning list of passerines to be found at the site includes calandra lark, crag martin, rufous - tailed scrub robin, three species of wheatears, blue rock thrush, various species of warblers, rock nuthatch, lesser grey and woodchat shrikes, rose - coloured starling, rock sparrow, black - headed and ortolan buntings, and others.’