Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This handsome, Red-winged Blackbird-sized predator is a songbird, not a raptor. It has no talons but, like falcons, has a “tomial tooth”—a tiny notch and projection on either side of the sharp-pointed upper bill, the extra points making a bite on the back of the neck more immediately lethal.

This shrike hunts for lizards, small birds, rodents, and large insects, often impaling them on thorns, fence barbs, and other sharp elements in its territory. It seems to be thriving in many areas of Florida where small invasive lizards proliferate, but has declined dramatically from the northern parts of its range. Recent sightings in Wisconsin and Minnesota are a hopeful sign.