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The UK Bird Atlas

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)Where and when to see it in the UK

Passage migrant · reporting peaks April to May · Shrikes · BOU category A

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

Woodchat Shrike (Lanius senator)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Woodchat 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.

Woodchat Shrike has been recorded in 121 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (4%) in records to 2026. Passage migrant in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Wales and Scotland. Reporting peaks in April to May.

Conservation status: Near Threatened (IUCN Red List, NT)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
6% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 6%
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 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Insufficient records
April 100%<1%Very high
May 91%<1%Very high
June 31%<1%Very high
July 2%<1%Low
August 11%<1%Very high
September 69%<1%Moderate
October 49%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Insufficient records
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in April

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NO50Fife, Scotland100%Very high
SH12Gwynedd, Wales100%Very high
SJ39Liverpool, England100%Very high
SM73Pembrokeshire, Wales100%Very high
SN03Pembrokeshire, Wales100%Very high
SS49Swansea, Wales100%Very high
ST55Somerset, England100%Very high
SW61Cornwall, England100%Very high
SW71Cornwall, England100%Very high
SW75Cornwall, 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.