I always loved watching wildlife, and started doing birdwatching almost 20 years ago; birds are for sure the easiest wildlife to spot! Altough I don't go out birding nearly as much as I did, still love to do it, and it's a great escuse to travel too. A few weeks ago, had a small conversation with another birder on steemit, and he had a pretty cool ideia of trying to gather more bird enthusiasts on the platform. And yesterday, it seems the idea actually took shape:

@birdersofsteem

This is the name of the project! Visit the introduction post here, and if you like birds... join in!! And now, here goes my first post with #birding!

^{Southern grey shrike / Picanço real meridional (PT) - Lanius meridionalis}

This bird largely resembles Lanius excubitor, but is now considered a different species, and can only be found in southern europe, mainly in Portugal and Spain.

It's a fairly big bird, reaching around 25cm, and it's fairly easy to identify, with its grey colour and black mask.

^{Sharing the perch with an eurasian collared dove Streptopelia decaoto}

Two more Lanius species exist in Portugal, but both are rarer and smaller, so this will probably be the species you will more likely encounter if you birdwatch in Portugal!

Photos taken with Canon SX50 HS