Happy Black Friday from the Magpie-Shrike!

These cute, very pretty little birds, magpie-shrikes (Urolestes melanoleucus), have a very scary and disturbing habit that I’m going to save for the end. For now, don’t hate these pretty little creatures.

Until the end. I’m going to stop being so repetitive now.

Magpie-shrikes are found chiefly in parts of Africa, such as Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia, Botswana, and Kenya.

Now for the scary, gross, horrifying, disturbing part. What do magpie-shrikes eat?

Not scary, eh?

Eh?

Eh.

Animals impaled on thorns.

They impale them themselves, you see. First they kill it—it can be anything from a small bird, a grasshopper, a treefrog, or a mouse to SMALL KITTEN—and then impale it on a thorn to save for later.

And it does this ALL DAY.

Oh, yeah. Why “Black Friday”? Two reasons: A) Magpie-shrikes are black and B) it gets tons of animals, just like shoppers get tons of stuff.

I know. I’m so clever.