Скачать или смотреть Watch this adult female magpie shrike on a high perch scanning actively for food

She has a magnificent long tail and regularly twitches it.
I shot this 4k video at Kruger National Park, South Africa
Males have entirely black flanks, belly, and undertail-coverts. Females are similar to the male, but they have a large white patch on their flanks.
She keeps moving to newer vantage points regularly in her hunt
They are native to the grasslands of eastern and southeastern Africa.
The magpie shrike is found in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It inhabits open savannah with scattered acacia trees, close-grazed turf and bare ground, in parts of southern and central Africa where precipitation mainly occurs between November and April. Arid areas are avoided but semi-arid areas may be favoured. It also occurs in woodland, particularly riparian areas, and in the Kruger National Park is found in river valleys with thorny mopane trees.
Magpie Shrikes play a role as insect and small vertebrate controllers, acting as perch-and-wait predators that hunt insects, lizards, and small mammals in open woodlands and savanna, using specialized bills to dispatch prey and sometimes impaling them for later consumption.
Most prey is caught on the ground, but flying insects are sometimes caught in mid air.
They are also significant for their social and cooperative breeding, living in family groups that help raise young, and their distinctive calls add to the soundscape of their habitats, though their populations are declining due to habitat loss.