- Bird of prey - Butcherbird - Curved-bill bird - Any one of numerous species of oscinine birds of the
family Laniidae, having a strong hooked bill, toothed at the tip. Most
shrikes are insectivorous, but the common European gray shrike (Lanius
excubitor), the great northern shrike (L. borealis), and several
others, kill mice, small birds, etc., and often impale them on thorns,
and are, on that account called also butcher birds. See under Butcher.