Lesser shrikes (Lanius minor) are birds of about 20 centimeters that are distributed from northeastern Spain to central Asia. In Western Europe they only appear in scattered enclaves of the southern Alps, the Mediterranean coast of Italy, southern France and northeastern Spain. They are characterized by their long tail, their voluminous head and a serrated and wide beak that resembles an eagle in miniature version. It has a grey back and head, a pink chest and a very characteristic black face mask. Iberian Grey Shrikes make one of the longest migrations of all European birds: they first move eastwards and cross the Mediterranean through the Near East.

It can often be confused with the grey shrike (Lanius meridionalis) because of its similar coloration. But there are differences: the Lesser Shrike is smaller than the Grey Shrike and although both have a black mask on their faces, the black spot of the mask is much more widespread above the beak in adult Lesser Grey Shrikes. In addition, the white wing spot is wider and shorter than in grey shrikes.  

The pairs of Lesser Grey Shrikes that breed in Spain select agricultural sites with cereal or alfalfa crops and borders with trees or shrubs. They like to occupy environments with a dry, temperate or warm climate, where tree and shrub cover is scarce.

Each pair of Lesser Shrikes lays one clutch of 5-6 eggs per year and can rarely reach nine. Although the chicks of these birds leave the nest before three weeks, they continue in the environment until they learn to fly. When rearing is over, parents and young people regroup with nearby families and return to their wintering areas.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species estimated that in 2015 there could be between 331,000 and 896,000 breeding pairs in Europe. In Spain, the state of the species is very worrying, because although it has never been a frequent bird, it went from 80 breeding pairs in the 90s to only one between 20011 and 2013. For this reason, the 2011 List of Wild Species under Special Protection and the National Catalogue of Threatened Species classify these birds as “endangered”. The Lesser Shrike could currently be considered the most endangered vertebrate in Spain.
 
There are several factors that have caused the decline of the population of Lesser Shrikes, with the loss of their habitat being the most important threat. Intensive and irrigated agriculture that concentrates the plots and makes the boundaries disappear or the poisoning of insects by pesticides, pose a great difficulty for these insect-consuming birds. So are the predation of corvids such as magpies, which do not hesitate to feed on shrike eggs and chicks and the high chances of having some mishap in their long migrations.
 
Currently , the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment collaborates with the TRENCA Association and the Barcelona Zoo, as well as with the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the aim of preventing the total disappearance of this species in our territory. To this end, a complex captive breeding program is carried out that has ensured that chicks born in captivity and released in Lleida have returned to the release site the following spring and even new breeding pairs have already been formed.