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, and winters 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 species' calls are short and grating, but the song has melodic warbler-like components. The masked shrike eats mainly large insects and occasionally small vertebrates; it sometimes impales its prey on thorns or barbed wire. Decreasing in parts of the European range, but not rapidly enough to raise serious conservation concerns, it is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a species of least concern. (Full article...)
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Helmut Flieg (1913–2001) was a German writer best-known by the pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States (or served in its army abroad) between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to his native Germany. He published works in English and German at home and abroad, including Nazis in the U.S.A. (1938), Goldsborough (1953), and Five Days in June (1977).
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