Shrikes | Laniidae

Klauwieren | Alcaudones

A hooked bill with a tooth in the cutting edge of the upper mandible, used to kill prey at the neck: these are songbirds that hunt like raptors, but with ordinary songbird feet that cannot hold prey down. That is why they impale insects, lizards and mice on thorns or barbed wire, to pin them while feeding and to store them. They sit still and upright on a lookout above open ground with scattered bushes and drop on prey from there; a black mask, a large head and a long tail belong to nearly every species. The nest is a sturdy cup deep in a thorny shrub.