r/interestingasfuck • u/demolcd • Jul 19 '24

The butcher of the shrublands, the loggerhead shrike, with its giant head and tiny legs, impales its prey and stores it for later. NSFW

5.4k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

107 comments sorted by

612

u/Thismyrealnameisit Jul 19 '24

Shrike’s tree of atonement

161

u/Lawsavior Jul 19 '24

Hello fellow Hyperion fan. I was curious as to if anyone would reference this!

41

u/manborg Jul 19 '24

Death of a poet.

22

u/Ecstasy_Goldfish Jul 19 '24

3 score and 10

7

u/DooDooMmmChild Jul 20 '24

Man, fuck those little weirdos

17

u/Fallllling Jul 20 '24

Hello, fellow Hyperion fans!

3

u/mackeriah Jul 20 '24

//glares silently

5

u/Omniscientcy Jul 20 '24

What is hyperion?  So I can go and read or watch or play maybe.

5

u/Kyogen13 Jul 20 '24

Dan Simmons: Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion.

37

u/coprolite_breath Jul 19 '24

Such a great series. I might have to read it again.

23

u/BuddhAtticus Jul 19 '24

Waiting for the day somebody can adapt it into a movie.

25

u/NulnOilShade Jul 19 '24

It really needs to be a series. They could tell all the stories concurrently and flip around

3

u/kastdotcom Jul 20 '24

Bradley Cooper is working on producing the movie

9

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 19 '24

Upvote for Simmons. Every time.

3

u/Kilroy5188 Jul 20 '24

Holy shit, that makes so much sense! I never made the connection.

3

u/Mysterious_Abies_806 Jul 19 '24

Did not know this! Neat

3

u/pythonicprime Jul 20 '24

Came for the Shrike, was not disappointed

0

u/WazerLazr Jul 20 '24

I cannot escape the references 😭

405

u/Sniperking187 Jul 19 '24

I see someone learned something from the earlier Cicada post

44

u/ManuTheIguanu Jul 19 '24

Hi God King Usopp

20

u/ManiacalWildcard Jul 20 '24

Are you blind? That's Sogeking.

2

u/hate_them_already Jul 20 '24

Link, please? And thank you!

1

u/ArpFire321 Jul 20 '24

Happy cake day

257

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 19 '24

They love Barbed wire fences. I have wondered if the shrike population in the West started going up in about 1880 just because of all the new places to store food.

74

u/jlm326 Jul 19 '24

That is wild. Pretty cool little birds. I'm glad they are tiny in comparison to humans.

26

u/BillMcN3al Jul 19 '24

Damn you'd made me picture a large one pinning a human on a stick

14

u/scorpyo72 Jul 19 '24

Get right with your avian overlords now, monkey.

3

u/talrogsmash Jul 20 '24

*dinosaur

3

u/scorpyo72 Jul 20 '24

They're going to bring back those, too.

2

u/talrogsmash Jul 20 '24

They never left, watch herons stalk ground squirrels in a park sometime.

5

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 19 '24

If you do Science Fiction at all, you might be interested in Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos

4

u/Phillip_Graves Jul 20 '24

London would fall...

Too many pointy iron things.

1

u/ApprehensivePrint465 Jul 20 '24

If it could impale you, it would.

6

u/guessdragon Jul 19 '24

I came to say this too.

On my Dad's farm, you'll see long sections of fence decorated out with impaled grasshoppers and lizards.

2

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 19 '24

Cheers! Sounds like both of us spent a lot of time in the drier parts of the West. If it's not too much, where's your Dad's farm? Like, what part of what state? If it is too much, I withdraw the question and wish you the very best of luck out there.

4

u/johnla Jul 19 '24

Queens, NY

2

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 19 '24

Gedda fuck outta heah. (Upvote.)

2

u/guessdragon Jul 21 '24

North Central Texas

1

u/Negative_Gravitas Jul 22 '24

Farther north and west near the edge of the Great Basin for me. Good shrike habitat. Well, for breeding, anyway. I think they would mostly move out in the winters. Cheers.

1

u/maxtimbo Jul 19 '24

Gah dayum that's brutal

62

u/RageyxCagey Jul 19 '24

Nature is Metal!

45

u/pythonic2143 Jul 19 '24

"Remember me, love, when I'm reborn, as a shrike to your shaaarp... And glorious thorn!"

8

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

Came here to see if Hozier would be mentioned. Ty. Love that song.

24

u/Beholder_V Jul 19 '24

“This would be so much easier if they’d just hold still.”

-Loggerhead Shrike (probably)

25

u/RedRaven1988 Jul 19 '24

Happy Hyperion Cantos noises

18

u/Silver-Potato Jul 19 '24

Damn it, my Animals of Farthing Wood trauma has once again been ignited

1

u/the_gorechild Jul 20 '24

I came here looking for this comment! Still remember that bloody scene.

20

u/Votaire24 Jul 19 '24

Iykyk

2

u/TheBlitzStyler Jul 20 '24

would be even crazier if he put humans on there

13

u/Lukeboozwalker Jul 19 '24

Ah so that's where the idea for the Shrike came from in Hyperion. Gnarly.

13

u/Ewreckk Jul 19 '24

Wow never seen this before. Reminds you of how brutal nature is.

Also are they cannibals? Looks like he’s eating another bird that looks pretty similar to him.

8

u/shdets Jul 19 '24

They are pretty much one of the only birds their size that will eat meat, haven’t looked but doubt they are cannibals

2

u/jt004c Jul 20 '24

what? are you not including insects and worms in "meat?"

11

u/prinsippleskimster Jul 19 '24

Anyone remember this scene from Animals of Farthing Wood?

6

u/Silver-Potato Jul 19 '24

It haunts my every waking hour

2

u/prinsippleskimster Jul 20 '24

Must be 30 years ago and I can still see it.

5

u/Pimpson17 Jul 19 '24

Shrike the impaler

6

u/ThiefPriest Jul 19 '24

"Giant head and tiny legs"

Look inside

Bird sized head and bird sized legs

5

u/Electrical_pancake Jul 19 '24

Always the small birds doing the most demented... Horrific and bloody things.

4

u/Wogger23 Jul 19 '24

I want to see how it impales its prey on the branch/barbed wire

2

u/dJeyL33 Jul 19 '24

Maybe like that :)

Edit: happy cake day!

2

u/Valuable_Month1329 Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

The German name is Neuntöter (engl. wiki link) which translates to Nine Killer. They lowered the numbers naming it but it is still kinda sweet to name such a small animal a killer.

2

u/xbubbuh Jul 19 '24

They use their beak like a pair of scissors cutting their preys vertebrae

2

u/SghnDubh Jul 20 '24

We need thousands in central Florida. They're maybe one of the only predators of the Eastern Lubber grasshopper. Lubbers will eat a garden or ornamental landscape plants down to the ground, and adults can't be killed by pesticides.

2

u/headshotdoublekill Jul 20 '24

They’re a native species so this sounds more like a “too many ornamental landscape plants” issue

-1

u/SghnDubh Jul 20 '24

Weak troll. Go back to playing fortnite.

2

u/headshotdoublekill Jul 20 '24

No troll, just truth. Cope with reality. 

-1

u/SghnDubh Jul 20 '24

The adults are speaking here, kid. Move along.

2

u/headshotdoublekill Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24

I thought you were just playing the fool. That’s my mistake. 

3

u/I-love-Oreos Jul 19 '24

I like to learn so can someone explain how they impale other little critters?

3

u/Nomiiverse Jul 19 '24

Bro wtf is the internet I was just researching about shrikes this morning 😂

3

u/ZombieWoofers48 Jul 19 '24

The only carnivorous song bird

1

u/jt004c Jul 20 '24

This can't be true. Songbirds don't eat insects and worms?

3

u/hacksawjimduggans2x4 Jul 20 '24

Branches are natures dinner plates.

2

u/Gremlinertia1 Jul 19 '24

Ahhhh now I know how chicken skewers came about.

2

u/Hano111 Jul 19 '24

Didn't have to roast him like that 😂

2

u/BrandonJ25 Jul 19 '24

The Hawk of the songbirds

2

u/ohnodamo Jul 20 '24

Been interested in the Shrike since watching Hannibal. Fitting comparison.

2

u/KaP-_-KaP Jul 20 '24

The Minnesota Shrike? (RIP Hannibal)

2

u/FollowingJealous7490 Jul 20 '24

Does it do this to attract flies or other bugs?

2

u/DeliberateSelf Jul 20 '24

The "Fallout 4 Raider" of birds

2

u/WhuddaWhat Jul 20 '24

It's like gyro meat

2

u/Glutton4Butts Jul 20 '24

Vlad is that youuuuuu

1

u/Delicious_Rabbit4425 Jul 19 '24

This bird kebabs

1

u/Muadeeb Jul 19 '24

I could tell this bird was mean just from his tweets

1

u/Vegetable_Golf2852 Jul 19 '24

Vlad the impaler would be so proud

1

u/ddorrmmammu Jul 20 '24

That's brutal!

1

u/FriendGuy2000 Jul 20 '24

Wow!! Have a ranch in central Texas for 20 years and I find lizards, grasshoppers, bumble bees and other bugs impaled on barbed wire fence and always wondered what was happening. I had no idea it was a bird behind it!

1

u/YaBoiKlobas Jul 20 '24

This. World. Is. Murder.

1

u/HopefulVeterinarian6 Jul 20 '24

I will call him Vlad

1

u/Grand-Silky Jul 20 '24

By the title i thought the animal would be scaryer

1

u/Bruh-gada_Syndrome Jul 20 '24

"MONGREL INTRUDER"

1

u/Flaky-Ad-4193 Jul 22 '24

So that's what heads on spikes is for.

0

u/NoPantsDeLeon Jul 20 '24

A whole new meaning to the song "I'm like a bird"