Great Grey Shrike, the Butcher of the Bushes

To kick off Project Feeder Watch, a bird word today, and actually a three for one word special:  the Great Grey Shrike, Lanius Excubitor.  

How terrible can that cute little bird be?  It was given its binomial name by no less than Carl Linneaus himself:  Lanius is the Latin word for a butcher or butcher shop and excubitor is the name for a sentinel or watchman.  This came from the observed phenomenon of the tiny shrike impaling its prey on the branches of thorn bushes to consume it and occasionally store it prey.

The common name shrike shares its etymology with our English word shriek, both of which came into English around 1550 from the Old English scric denoting a shrike or thrush but meaning generally (and onomatopoeically) a bird with a harsh or shrill call.  The Old English took its roots from the Old Norse skrikja meaning shrieker, or shrike.

Image of the Great Grey Shrike (top) courtesy Massimiliano Sticca. Image of the Great Grey Shrike feeding on an impaled mouse (bottom) courtesy Marek Szczepanek, both used with permission under a Creative Commons 3.0 licenses.