shrike (redirected from Shrikes)

shrike or butcher bird, predatory songbird found in most parts of the world except Australia and South America. The plumage of the European and North American species is mostly gray, black, and white; the tail is long and rounded, and the wings are rather short. Some African species are brilliantly colored. The name butcher bird reflects its habit of impaling its prey—small birds and mammals and large insects—on a thorn or sharp twig before tearing it apart with its strong, tip-hooked beak. North American shrikes include the loggerhead, great gray or northern, and California shrikes. Shrikes are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Laniidae.

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shrike

Any of about 64 species of solitary, predatory songbirds (family Laniidae), especially any of the 25 species of the genus Lanius. Shrikes kill insects, lizards, mice, and birds with their bill or may impale their prey on a thorn (earning them the name butcher bird). Most species are gray or brownish and have a harsh call; several Eurasian species have reddish or brown markings. The great gray shrike (L. excubitor), called northern shrike in Canada and the U.S., is about 10 in. (25 cm) long and has a black mask. The only other New World species is the similar but smaller loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus) of North America.