Often just called the Woodchat, Lanius senator is a particularly handsome member of the Shrike family. The Shrikes are known as butcher birds, and the scientific family name, Lanius is Latin for ‘butcher’ because it catches large insects and impales them on thorns as a ‘larder’ to eat later, or to help a male attract a mate. They can also eat small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
This beautiful, alert bird was perched on top of top of an acacia bush watching out for prey near Erg Chebbi, on the edge of the Sahara Desert, in Morocco, North Africa. Very near to where I photographed this bird, I saw another dragging a Barn Swallow along the sand seemingly wanting to hide it under a bush. It may, or may not, have been the same bird.
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