Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Masked shrike

Masked shrike

 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/April 10, 2016 by — Chris Woodrich (talk) 23:42, 23 March 2016 (UTC)



The  masked shrike (Lanius nubicus) is a bird in the shrike family, Laniidae. It breeds in southeastern Europe and at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, with a separate population in eastern Iraq and western Iran. It is migratory, wintering mainly in northeast Africa. It is the smallest member of its genus, long-tailed and with a hooked bill. The male has mainly black upperparts, with white on its crown, forehead and supercilium and large white patches on the shoulders and wings. The throat, neck sides and underparts are white, with orange flanks and breast. The female is a duller version of the male, with brownish black upperparts and a grey or buff tone to the shoulders and underparts. The juvenile has grey-brown upperparts with a paler forehead and barring from the head to rump, barred off-white underparts and brown wings part from the white primary patches. The species' calls are short and grating, but the song has melodic warbler-like components. The masked shrike eats mainly large insects, occasionally small vertebrates; it sometimes impales its prey on thorns or barbed wire. Populations are decreasing in parts of the European range, but not rapidly enough to raise serious conservation concerns, and the species is therefore classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.
 * Most recent similar article(s): Alpine chough on 12 February 2016
 * Main editors:
 * Promoted: 5 November 2014
 * Reasons for nomination: Its distribution is Africa, Middle East and far eastern Europe, so nice to have a bird that is not from US/Aus/UK. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:56, 22 March 2016 (UTC)
 * ...as I said to my Dutch girlfriend a few years back Brianboulton (talk) 16:17, 23 March 2016 (UTC)
 * I knew a Dutch girl once...but she ate so much chocolate it rotterdam teeth..... :P Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 19:48, 23 March 2016 (UTC)


 * Support as nominator. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 09:56, 22 March 2016 (UTC)