The Shrikes are probably the only family of Passerines that can wear the title of raptors along with the hawks and owls. The Shrikes, in the family Laniidae, are known colloquially as "Butcher Birds". With a fearsome countenance and hooked bill,shrikes are voracious predators. Usually not much larger than an American Robin, shrikes feed on insect, lizards and small rodents such as mice. A fully grown shrike can take on prey as large as itself. The moniker of 'Butcher Bird' is well deserved. When a shrike catches and kills its prey, it flies to a 'Larder Stash", and impales it on something sharp to leave for later. Before people showed up, they used thorn trees, but now you can prey impaled on anything sharp, including barbed wire fences.
The Loggerhead Shrike - Lanius ludovicianus is a medium sized shrike, one of two species found in the US and Canada. You can often find them hovering over a field like a kestrel, or perched on a fence or telephone line, waiting for something to run or fly by. This individual caught a mouse and hung it on the fence it was perched on. We saw it grab the mouse in its bill and fly away to places unknown. This group ranges about as far North as Nebraska, north of there the Northern Shrike takes over.
Here I was, reading your fascinating account of the fearsome predator, thinking 'wouldn't it awesome if you got a photo of the prey impaled?'...scroll down and there it is. Quite the pic -- and a rewarding surprise at the conclusion of a very nicely written account. Seeing the poor little mouse hanging there actually made me LOL.
Posted by: Cathy Chatfield-Taylor | March 25, 2008 at 09:08 AM