The plumage is a sandy colour.

[3] The red-tailed shrike breeds in south Siberia and Central Asia.

This migratory medium-sized passerine eats large insects, small birds, rodents and lizards.

Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a larder.

It breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with thorn bushes.