The occurrence of the Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) in Hungary, with special reference to the Csanádi-hát region

The Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a regular breeding and overwintering species in Hungary. The nesting population is concentrated in a small part of the country, but during winter, it occurs countrywise. Despite this fact, only occasional reports of migration and wintering of this species can be found in the literature. The aim of our work was to collect the sporadic occurrence data published or collected by the BirdLife Hungary Monitoring Centre, and to determine an accurate occurrence period of the species in Hungary. In addition, we processed 240 field observation data from the area of the Csanádi-hát (SE Hungary) between 1991 and 2025. It was not possible to determine the most important wintering sites of the species based on the national-level observaion data, but it was possible to examine the temporal distribution of the data. Based on data from the last 130 years, the first individuals of the species typically arrived in Hungary in the second half of September, while in spring the last individuals left the country by the end of March – beginning of April. Earlier records in autumn and later records in spring are very rare, with observations at extreme times probably referring to nesting birds. Most individuals were seen during the autumn migration period in October–November, after which they overwintered in varying numbers from year to year, but its number typically declined gradually until late spring. The standard data available from the Csanádi-hát indicate that in some years, records were high, while in others, far fewer individuals were seen. This is probably due to the annual fluctuation of food and the different weather conditions in the breeding and wintering grounds year to year.