#grey shrike

[jakubrozalski]

Grey Reaper ( Lanius excubitor ) " My sweet summer child, what do you know about horror, about fear? Let me tell you a story about the Grey Reaper. The story of how I lost my only brother. It happened on the last day of October, long before you were born and I was still a young girl. My grandfather told me a story about an old beast, he called it the Grey Reaper. The beast appeared only during the autumn preceding the most harsh and long winters. Reaper hunted during the day, while everyone was working in the fields, members of our tribe disappeared without a trace. I always thought these stories were just fairy tales, until one day I saw him with my own eyes! Together with my brother and father we were gathering nuts for the winter in an old orchard. Suddenly everywhere fell eerily silent, in the forest and the field. Then, I heard a terrifying croak, the air whistled, the grass around me bent. I turned around and looked into the cold, black eyes of the beast. Those black empty eyes haunt me to this day. One moment later the beast flew away with my brother in its claws. Everything happened so fast, and at the same time as if time was frozen. My father grabbed his backpack and a spear and ran after the beast, straight to its lair, trying to save my brother! It was a place from the worst nightmares. The smell of blood and death was everywhere. To reach the place where the beast rested, one had to fight their way through a maze of thorny branches on which the Reaper impaled his victims. I tell you my child, many beasts roam these forests, many predators threaten us and hunt us for food... but the Reaper did it for fun! Father returned to us badly wounded, unfortunately it was too late for my brother. Father never spoke of what happened there and we never asked. No one has seen the Grey Reaper since. But I'm still afraid to go out into the fields and orchard in the fall, the beats still haunt me in nightmares, I'm still afraid he'll come back..."

I remember when many years ago, I first heard about the Great Grey Shrike and its habits, I couldn't believe it! Since then, this bird has always fascinated me and stimulated my imagination. Especially in the context of how terrifying its habits must have been for the creatures like gnomes. I always wanted to place this bird in the "Furry Demon" stories / universe, and I finally did! Nature is truly extraordinary. If you haven't heard of the Great Grey Shrike ( Dzierzba Srokosz ) before, I recommend checking it out, but it's not for the faint of heart :)) Cheers! work process: https://jrozalski.com/projects/AZQqZN

[shroudedmoon]

CASS!! She's got great grey shrike wings!! I was conflicted over what bird to give her for the longest time but i think this one works well enough

her wings are dyed mostly grey/black with a pop of yellow to keep in line with her costume :)

[michaelnordeman]

Eurasian nuthatch/nötväcka, Great grey shrike/varfågel and Great tit/talgoxe. Värmland, Sweden (February 23, 2017).

[alonglistofbirds]

[2361/11080] Chinese grey shrike - Lanius sphenocercus

Order: Passeriformes Suborder: Passeri Superfamily: Corvoidea Family: Laniidae (shrikes)

Photo credit: Kai Pflug via Macaulay Library

[snototter]

A lesser grey shrike (Lanius minor) in Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa

by Bernard Dupont

[unknownarmageddon]

horror is so so turkey vulture if i had to assign him a bird it’d be turkey vulture

[sarahlizziewrites]

Hold on I want to see something

If you have a Hozier track (or tracks) on your WIP playlist, reblog this and tell me which ones in the tags

[redflicker]

Ma’am offers Emmet an oran berry in this trying time.

Based off a scene in “When you reach the end of the line, you must be brave.” by Pinkrhin0 on ao3

[besidethepath]

When the light fades

[antiqueanimals]

Illustrated Sketches of Natural History: Consisting of Descriptions and Engravings of Animals. Second Series. 1864.

Internet Archive

[diningwiththeasquiths]

BAM! See this bird right here? This is a Great Grey Shrike. That's right, like the Minnesota Shrike from NBC's Hannibal. Impaling their prey and whatnot. Coincidentally they are one of my favourite birds, partly because their name in Dutch loosely translates to 'SMACK MAGPIE'.

This is a stuffed one in my local natural history museum. ❤

[ispida]

Boy look at my bird photos boy

Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)

Domestic Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus)

Iberian Grey Shrike (Lanius meridionalis)

:)

[michaelnordeman]

Great grey shrike/varfågel, photographed way back in 2017. I never got the chance to take decent pictures of it, and I haven’t seen it around here since then. Värmland, Sweden (February 23, 2017). 

[thoughtlessarse]

A small yet fearsome bird was caught on camera hunting and killing a giant rodent on a Scottish golf course – despite being 6000km from home. Mark Begg captured a rare sighting of the Steppe Grey Shrike, or "world's smallest bird of prey". It is believed to have been blown off course from its usual hunting grounds in Asia, on Winterfield Golf Course in Dunbar, East Lothian, on September 18. Fascinating shots show the predatory songbird, known as a "butcher bird", issuing a "death bite" to kill the much larger vole before struggling to carry its mammoth meal to a nearby thicket. The 60-year-old great grandad-of-one then snapped the pint-sized predator impaling its furry victim on twigs before ripping it apart.

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FTR, a bird of prey is a carnivorous bird that hunts for its food, especially one that preys on vertebrates.

[yourpalminsk]

Metal Album Style Self-Portrait

I drew this exaggerated picture of myself in the style of a doom metal album cover. I am planning a music-related thing that may or may not become a reality and this picture would be used in it.

The birds featured in the picture are a great grey shrike (lanius excubitor), a bearded vulture (gypateus barbatus) and a pueo (asio flammeus sandwichensis). I consider them all very metal birds!