Dutch Birding volume 34 (2012) no 5

Long-tailed Shrike near Den Helder in October 2011

On 31 October 2011, a first-winter Long-tailed Shrike Lanius schach stayed for a full day near Den Helder, Noord-Holland, the Netherlands, and was seen by at least 300 and probably over 400 birders. The bird was identified by the combination of very long brown tail, black mask, strong orange tone on flank and lower belly, grey upperhead and mantle and orange-brown rump, back and lower scapulars. The grey upperhead only fits the migratory western subspecies L s erythronotus from western Central Asia or L s schach from further east and excludes the other mostly resident subspecies from the Indian Subcontinent and South-East Asia. This was the first record for the Netherlands, the fourth for Europe and the ninth for the Western Palearctic 'sensu BWP'. All WP records are listed in table 1.

Johanna van Dillen-Staal, Tjalkstraat 59, 1784 RZ Den Helder, Nederland
(johannastaalgmail.com)
Enno B Ebels, Joseph Haydnlaan 4, 3533 AE Utrecht, Nederland
(ebelswxs.nl)