The predator is a male rufous-backed shrike -- one of a family of 70 species. Three quarter of the species live in Africa, and the rest are distributed throughout Europe, Asia and North America. In the Indian sub-continent, nine species are found. These fierce predators -- only 20 to 23 cms long -- hunt for a wide variety of preys. The largest species pursue mice and other small mammals, lizards, and young birds, while the smaller shrikes eat garden lizards, worms and insects. Apart from observation perches, shrikes also hunt while flying, sometimes hovering above the ground or hawking for insects in mid-air.

Shrikes eat much of their prey, or feed it to their young ones immediately after catching it, but most species in the northern hemisphere store a part of their food on thorns or barbed wire fences, known as `larders'. Because of this habit, reminiscent of a butcher hanging meat on a hook, they are popularly known as `butcher birds'. Other local names of shrikes are, `murdering bird' and `nine killer', the latter because of an old superstition that a shrike killed nine creatures before it started to feed on them. The word `shrike' itself is an Old English form of the word `shriek', although not all species make the harsh, grating cries that gave rise to the name. A few African varieties are quite melodious. Shrikes create their food stores principally during the breeding season, when extra food is needed for the young. Often, though, a shrike abandons its larder, perhaps because there is a surplus of food or because the hoarded titbits get dry.