The Shrike

A Loggerhead Shrike backlit in a fall tree. This bird is fantastic, it acts more like a hawk, catching prey other songbirds would not and impaling it on thorns and barbs to tear it apart. Shrikes have a hawk mentality, but they lack the strong talons and the tearing beak so they need a little help, so they use thorns in nature and our contribution, barbed wire. This practice is where the name “Butcher Bird” comes from.