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 ...

Because their feet are not adapted to process prey items, shrikes carry large items to thorny vegetation and/or barbed wire ...

The loggerhead shrike may look like any other songbird you might see at a backyard feeder, but its soft exterior masks the heart of a killer. “It really is a bird of prey trapped in the songbirds body ...

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 ...

Ten loggerhead shrikes hatched last month at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) in Front Royal, Va. These genetically valuable chicks will be the first SCBI-hatched shrikes to be ...

Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad III, was prince of Wallachia three times between 1448 and 1477. Wallachia was a region of Europe that eventually become present-day Romania. A ferocious warrior, Vlad was ...

Raise your hand if you know what a loggerhead shrike is? Here’s a clue: it has nothing to do with men who cut down trees for a living and make shrill noises while doing so. If you think it’s a small ...