Like eagles and falcons, shrikes are birds of prey. However, they aren’t raptors, but are songbirds. Though shrikes have a sharp, hooked beak, they are small and have weak legs. The little shrike ...

In every winter, it seems, we are visited by a hunter from the Far North, a solitary figure wrapped in gray passing over the landscape capturing small prey and moving on. The snowy owl is such a ...

On Wednesday last week, a killer came into my yard. It was a northern shrike. Sometimes called "the butcher bird," the shrike preys on small birds and mammals. These it impales on thorns or wires, ...

To us “civilized” mammals, some animal behavior can sometimes be construed as downright gruesome. There are behaviors that have been observed by animals in which even the most avid naturalist has been ...

The robin-sized bird flew low over the pasture but then soared up to light on the very highest twig of a leafless maple. There it perched upright and appeared to scan the open fields below the tree.

Birdwatchers in the North East have been treated to a rare sight after seeing a bird dubbed the 'butcher bird' over the region's coastline. The Red-backed Shrike, one of Britain’s rarest birds, was ...