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Shrikes (/ ʃ r aɪ k /) are passerine birds of the family Laniidae.The family is composed of 34 species in two genera.. The family name, and that of the larger genus, Lanius, is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also known as butcherbirds because of the habit, particularly of males, of impaling prey onto plant spines within their territories.
Lanius shrikes are birds of open habitats typically seen perched upright on a prominent perch like a treetop or a telephone pole. They sally out for prey, taken in flight or the ground. These species primarily take large insects, but will also take small birds, reptiles and mammals.
The size of prey ranges from 0.001 g (3.5 × 10 −5 oz) insects to 25 g (0.88 oz) mice or reptiles. [3] Desert iguana pinned to a white rhatany shrub by a loggerhead shrike. In California. They are not true birds of prey, as they lack the large, strong talons used to catch and kill prey. [4]
The great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a large and predatory songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the Iberian grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the American loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus).
Shrikes are passerine birds known for their habit of catching other birds and small animals and impaling the uneaten portions of their bodies on thorns. A shrike's beak is hooked, like that of a typical bird of prey. Red-backed shrike, Lanius collurio; Red-tailed shrike, Lanius phoenicuroides (*) Isabelline shrike, Lanius isabellinus (*)
Loggerhead shrikes are highly predatory creatures. The hunting shrike once was common in Ohio but now is a rare find here.
The southern fiscal or fiscal shrike (Lanius collaris) is a member of the shrike family found through most of southern Africa.It is also sometimes named jackie hangman or butcher bird due to its habit of impaling its prey on acacia thorns to store the food for later consumption.
The northern shrike was formally described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808 under its present binomial name Lanius borealis. [2] [3] In the 19th century, North American ornithologists considered it as a separate species from the great grey shrike, while European authorities held them to be the same species.