Shrikes

All 3 species of shrikes on WAnimals

Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 58 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…?

• Its chestnut crown sets it apart; it watches from wires and bare branches.

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• It impales grasshoppers, beetles and lizards on thorn bushes and barbed wire, forming visible larders that also work as a shop window: the males with the best larder attract more females.

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• It depends on large insects, and its European decline goes hand in hand with the general fall in insect biomass documented over recent decades.

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• It impales its prey on thorns to store it, like a larder.

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• It impales its prey on hawthorn and blackthorn spines or on barbed wire, creating larders that it often never eats.

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• This has earned it the nickname "butcher bird", and its genus, Lanius, means precisely butcher in Latin.

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• It impales its prey on thorn bushes and barbed wire, forming visible larders: it has no raptor's talons for holding prey while it tears at it, so it spikes the prey and pulls with its bill.

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Ecosystems