Specimen of the Month: "Butcher" Birds

By guest contributor and Summer Naturalist Intern, Olivia Rataezyk

Members of the Shrike family have earned themselves a gruesome nickname due to their hunting habits. Though they are not raptors, they are carnivorous, feeding on small birds and mammals. They often kill more food than they can eat at one time. So, they store their extras by impaling them on barbed wire or thorns. They revisit these stores later, when they are running low on food.

Northern Shrikes are found in Wisconsin during the winter, when they come south from their breeding habitats in Canada and Alaska. You can sometimes spot them along telephone lines or on wire fences.

Photo by Reuven Martin.

Fun Fact—The Northern Shrike’s Latin name, Lanius excubitor, roughly translates to “butcher”!