Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of several magpies of the genus Cracticus, native to Australia and New Guinea, that impale their prey on thorns.
- noun Any of various unrelated birds of North America, Asia, or Europe that behave similarly, especially the shrikes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun South Africa The fiscal shrike, Lanius collaris
- noun any of the magpie-like birds in the genus
Cracticus
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Though many bird species hunt, kill, and eat other animals—from the shrike, a songbird also known as the butcherbird, who kills and then uses thorns to skewer other birds to store them prominently for a later meal and attract a mate, to the worm-eating robin—birds of prey are exclusively predatory.
Birdology Sy Montgomery 2010
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Beehler also stated that the forests from Mt. Riu eastward are very important to the survival of the Tagula honeyeater and the Tagula butcherbird.
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I have a friend, a pied butcherbird, who cannot sing.
Archive 2007-07-01 Ivan Donn Carswell 2007
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I have a friend, a pied butcherbird, who cannot sing.
Ode To A Solitary Pied Butcherbird Ivan Donn Carswell 2007
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Cell Phones Heed Call of the Wild << Back to Article : Music Cell Phones Heed Call of the Wild Katie Dean 10.30.04 Cell-phone users in the United States will soon have the option to set their ringers to the song of the pied butcherbird, cry of the screaming piha or tremolo of a loon, among other critters.
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The determination and fierce resolution of the shrike, or butcherbird, despite his small size, is most marked.
Nature Near London Richard Jefferies 1867
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By singing just after the butcherbird vocalizes, a male can be sure that females are paying attention and will hear their song.
Ars Technica Kate Shaw 2011
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The second possibility is that when female fairy wrens hear a butcherbird call, they go on high alert and are particularly tuned in to their environment.
Ars Technica Kate Shaw 2011
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They played either a solo butcherbird call, a solo Type II song, or a butcherbird call followed by a Type II song, and recorded the ladies' reactions.
Ars Technica Kate Shaw 2011
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The second possibility is that when female fairy wrens hear a butcherbird call, they go on high alert and are particularly tuned in to their environment.
Ars Technica Kate Shaw 2011
ry commented on the word butcherbird
fiscal shrike?!
April 17, 2014