If you see a grey bird with a black mask and hooked beak, it has to be a shrike. Shrikes also have black wings and tails that show flashes of white in flight and may be momentarily mistaken for a Northern Mockingbird.

Shrikes are the only songbirds that prey on other songbirds as their main source of food. Unlike other birds of prey which have strong talons for killing, shrikes impale their prey on the thorns of hawthorns, barbed wire fences and other sharp objects, then deliver a death blow with their bills. This, along with their habit of killing more birds than they can eat at one time, has earned them the harsh nickname "Butcher Bird." As with many other birds (nutcrackers, some owls, chickadees), shrikes stockpile food to compensate for periods when hunting may be bad.

Two species of shrikes can be seen in Nova Scotia, but one is seen only rarely. The more common species is the Northern Shrike. Northern Shrikes occasionally come to feeders to search for songbirds. Fierce by nature, Northern Shrikes will attack birds larger than themselves but prefer to feed on sparrow-sized songbirds. You can learn to recognize a Northern Shrike at a distance by noting the flight pattern. They have a habit of flying low to the ground and then suddenly swerving upward to land on an exposed perch. Shrikes like to hunt in open areas where they can scan the surrounding landscape for likely prey. If you wish, you can discourage them from visiting your yard by placing your feeders as close as possible to thick trees and bushes, or encourage them by placing your feeder a bit more in the open.

Shrikes are most common in rural areas but they will also come into cities and towns to hunt, especially during "Shrike Winters." Shrike winters occur on a sporadic basis and are marked by large numbers of Northern Shrikes pouring into the province from the northern parts of the continent.

The Loggerhead Shrike is an endangered species and is only rarely sighted in Nova Scotia. However a few more may be present than the reports indicate as they look very similar to the Northern Shrike. The Northern Shrike has a mostly black bill with a small flesh coloured patch at the base of the lower mandible visible only in good light. The Loggerhead has a pure black bill and a thin black line that runs over the top of its bill that connects the two sides of the black mask.