Retired Teacher

The brown shrike migrates between its breeding grounds in Siberia and its winter home ( September to April)  in Malaysia.  They are excellent navigators, often returning to the same location year after year.  In both their summer and winter homes these shrikes maintain territories.   Open forests including parks and gardens are preferred.   As a consequence of territoriality, late arrivals are pushed into less favourable habitat. Shrikes apparently originated in Africa in close association with thorn trees and have spread worldwide.  They are often called ‘butcher birds’ because, in the breeding season , the males will skewer both food and non-food items on thorn trees or (adapting to modernity) barbed wire fences.  It is thought the males need to prove their hunting prowess to females. Of note: Apparently some females are fooled if males display non-food items.   Other males will raid these larders, either because they are hungry or because they want to make the territorial male app