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Name : Loggerhead shrike ( Lanius ludovicianus )
Where it lives : North America
Loggerhead shrikes often impale their prey on barbed wire.
What it eats : principally invertebrates , but also small vertebrates include reptiles , amphibious aircraft , bats and birds .
Why it ’s awesome : The hammerhead shrike is nicknamed the " butcherbird " thanks to its rather sick praxis of impaling its fair game on sharp thorns , twigs and briary wire .
This piffling songster , which can take down prey heavier than itself , waits patiently onhigh perch — sometimes using telephony wires — and keeps a tone out for a possible repast .
A loggerhead shrike after impaling a mouse on a sharp twig.
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Once it descry a dupe , it swoops down and uses its bird of prey - comparable abstract hooter to make the killing — repeatedly burn the back of its neck to paralyze it . A field of study published in 2018also found that for bigger target , dumbass shrikes will hold its quarry by the cervix and shake it with force tantamount to a homo experiencing a ho-hum rear - ending car crash . By shaking its quarry like this , the doll damage the spinal editorial — fundamentally using the victim ’s eubstance weight against it .
The loggerhead shrike actually transfix its quarry to store it for later on ; the knifelike points of a tree diagram or fence deed as a buttery for the wench to revisit afterwards .
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spike quarry may also act as a elbow room for males to show off their hunting capabilities to females . A 1989 report on a associate shrike species in Israelfound that a male ’s cache increase prior to the fosterage season and that males with the largest cache bred first and sired more offspring .
Another studyfound that impale prey can help reduce the toxicity of a kill . The highly toxic eastern lubber grasshopper ( Romalea guttata ) , for exercise , causes retch , vomit and even end in some predators . But when a loggerhead shrike impales the dirt ball and render a couple of day later , the shuttle can exhaust it safely .
