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The UK Bird Atlas

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks March · Shrikes · BOU category AEF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)
Roger Culos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Great Grey Shrike: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Great Grey Shrike has been recorded in 409 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (14%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in March.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
8% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 8%
Low
under <1%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 63%<1%Very high
February 75%<1%Very high
March 100%<1%Very high
April 21%<1%Very high
May 1%<1%Very high
June 3%<1%Low
July 0%<1%Very high
August 1%<1%Very high
September 14%<1%Low
October 87%<1%Very high
November 63%<1%Very high
December 31%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NH73Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NN68Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NT90Northumberland, England100%Very high
NY98Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ02County Durham, England100%Very high
NZ29Northumberland, England100%Very high
NZ32County Durham, England100%Very high
SD39Westmorland and Furness, England100%Very high
SD57Lancashire, England100%Very high
SE48North Yorkshire, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.