though loggerhead shrikes may appear cute and fluffy, a little like shrunken mockingbirds with oversized heads, their gruesome eating habits have named them the nickname of ‘butcherbirds’. shrikes take their prey (sometimes their own size or larger) and pinch down on the neck with their beaks, rendering them paralyzed, then shake their heads rapidly to snap the neck. shrikes store their food by impaling it on sharp sticks or barbed wire; sometimes a shrike’s cache looks like a bizarre collection of small animals hung on a fence.

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