Shrike is the bird from Laniidae family, where the family name is derived from Latin word for “butcher”.

Okay, let us not get into all technical stuff. To cut short in simple words, Shrike looks cute as any other bird, but it is a carnivorous bird which usually hunts on his own and it has an ingenious way of having the meal. Shrikes are usually found in Eurasian and African regions. But these guys can fly and you can spot them anywhere. Though it is not that easy, they aren’t spotted in South America or Australia. He mostly needs partial open land just like Savannah terrain.

Shrikes impale their prey by hanging it on thorny things.
Yup, this smart guy usually takes his food and hangs it on thorns of acacia tree or, the modern version of this bird hangs his food on barbed wire fences.

These videos have grabbed the Shrike into action. Check ‘em

Check the blog of Jolle Jolles, the MUDFOOTED for a beautiful write up on this behavior.
And also check the work of Scott Simmons on his Outdoor Photography blog for interesting write up.

Image inputs from Wikipedia and Flickr. Please click on the images for respective copyright attribution.