A Great Grey Shrike from the Altai mountains

The only larger shrikes we saw during our trip to Russian Altai was a group of two adults and at least one young on 19 June 2010. The place was in the eastern part of the Ukok plateau, 72 km south-west of the town Kosh-Agach, and quite close to the Topli Klutch pass, in the southernmost part of the Altai Republic, Russia (N49 31 E88 02). The habitat was a rocky mountainside with scattered bushes, at 2300 m asl. Because of the habitat, the birds were very difficult to photograph.

The adults had a grey back, the underside was unbarred greyish white. The mask was black and long-looking (reached the hindneck). The crown looked quite dark greyish, the supercilium was quite indistinct and it was truly white only above and close to the eye. The rump was very white, almost as white as the underside. The white wing-patch was very small, sometimes visible only as a narrow streak when the bird was sitting in a bush. However, when the birds were flying, the white was clearly visible. The juvenile had a somewhat larger wing-patch and a much more indistinct mask, but no visible barring on the underparts (but the light was from a bad angle when the juvenile was best visible).

The breeding taxon here should be mollis. However, these birds were quite different to what we expected of mollis: paler, with no or only slight barring on the underparts.

The following three photos are all probably of the same adult.

Below two additional photos of the same birds by Jarkko Santaharju