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	Podcast:		Local Features by WXPR
	Episode:		Shrike Spotting
	Category:		Government & Organizations
	Duration:		00:04:08
	Publish Date:		2019-02-11 05:00:00
	Description:		Some birds you might take for granted, others might make you take more notice when you see them. The Masked Biologist reports a shrike sighting in this week’s Wildlife Matters . I saw a shrike a couple of weeks ago. I was driving from somewhere to somewhere else, alone, and I was slowing down for some kind of lane closure and I saw a shrike sitting on a sign. Big deal, right? To those of you listening that aren’t birders, you might not be familiar with shrikes. They are in an interesting category of bird, the predatory songbird. And, you may not be aware, but they are not terribly common to observe here in Wisconsin—but if you see one, it is most likely to happen in winter. The shrike, or butcherbird as it is sometimes called, hunts prey its own size or smaller, including insects, rodents, small birds amphibians, snakes, and the like. The butcher in their name comes from their seemingly peculiar habit of storing some of its prey by spearing it on sharp branches or barbed wire fencing.
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