Specimen Showcase | Butcherbird

Small birds are often perceived as insect or fruit eaters, and less so like some of their past dinosaur ancestors, as predators of other vertebrates. Well, shrikes (Laniidae family) are an exception in that sense as they can feed on mice, frogs, small snakes or even other small birds. In that sense, their eating behavior is more similar to the raptors. Here you may question how the shrikes eat these big prey🤔? Unlike other large raptors who eat their prey quickly after catching them, shrikes will use a tool by impaling their prey on thorns and tear it into small pieces😧. Clever bird! This particular behaviour has led to their nickname “The butcherbird”. Sorry for our vegetarian and vegan friends. A small part of the prey will also be kept on the thornes as a cache. This behavior, however, serves as a different function and is important for shrikes. Just like in some gangs, males will use the impaled prey to mark and delimitate their territory, which serve as an appeal to the females💪🏼 and later provide food support in the breeding season. In addition, during the breeding season, the male shrikes will decorate the cache by using eggshell, snail, rags etc. providing additional visual effects that appeal to the female.

The specimen shown above belongs to the species 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘤𝘩 Linnaeus 1758, or Long-tailed shrike which measures just about 25 cm. The sound produced by shrikes is varied, and 𝘓. 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘤𝘩 for instance, can produce at least 13 call types🔊. The interesting thing is that some shrikes can imitate the sound of other bird species, and this apparently helps the male to attract the females💍.

𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘤𝘩 is the only species of shrike that live in Hong Kong all year long and they can be more commonly observed in wetlands or farmlands. Sometimes they stand on the electric wire in search of prey. When you visit these places, try to find them and observe their predation show🔎.

Text: Zoey Chung

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