northern shrike

8.3

A small northern bird that catches insects and small animals and sticks them on thorns

noun
/ˈnɔrðərn ʃraɪk/

Specialized

: lanius borealis

A northern shrike will sometimes impale insects or even small mammals on sharp branches.

Examples

The northern shrike is often spotted perched high on telephone wires in winter.
Birdwatchers are excited whenever a northern shrike is seen during migration season.
The northern shrike is a fascinating bird.
I saw a northern shrike in the park yesterday.
A northern shrike impales its prey on thorns to store food for later.
During the winter, the northern shrike hunts for small rodents in snowy fields.
Birdwatchers look for the northern shrike due to its distinctive hunting behavior.

Synonyms

Lanius borealis

vsnorthern shrike

Specialized

9.9

A small northern North American bird that puts its prey on thorns or wire

is the common name noting impaling prey on thorns but not wire

Surface Forms

northern shrike singular

northern shrikes plural

Morphology

northern + shrike

The noun phrase is fully compositional: 'northern' (pertaining to the north) plus 'shrike' (a type of bird) yields a straightforward meaning of a shrike found in northern regions, so a learner who knows both words can infer it's a northern species of shrike. The specialized detail about impaling prey is domain-specific knowledge but does not affect the transparent adjective+noun composition, which follows common cross-linguistic patterns.

Etymology

Northern shrike gets its name from a strange habit: the shrike often kills insects or small animals and then sticks them on thorns or sharp branches, so people call it a 'butcher bird'. The word northern shows where it lives, so the name describes a northern bird known for that habit.