Loggerhead Shrike with Dinner
by Terri Mills
Title
Loggerhead Shrike with Dinner
Artist
Terri Mills
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Loggerhead Shrike taken in Clearwater, Florida - May 25, 2010 Copyright Terri Mills All Rights Reserved
Information from: http://allaboutbirds.org
A small gray, black, and white bird of open areas, the Loggerhead Shrike hardly appears to be a predator. But it uses its hooked beak to kill insects, lizards, mice, and birds, and then impales them on thorns to hold them while it rips them apart.
The Loggerhead Shrike is a predator, but it does not have the strong feet and talons of a raptor. It does have a strongly hooked bill for gripping flesh, and a strong notch or "tooth" near the bill tip that helps sever the spinal cord of its prey. It uses thorns and barbed wire to hold large prey while it rips it up, and may wedge prey into a fork in a branch for the same purpose.
Habitat:
Open Woodland
Food:
Insects, amphibians, small reptiles, small mammals, and birds.
Nesting Facts:
Clutch Size 1–9 eggs
Egg Description:
Grayish buff with dark spots around large end.
Nest Placement:
Tree
Behavior:
Aerial Dive - Scans for food from perches. Kills by biting prey in back of neck, cutting the spinal cord. Impales prey on thorns so that it can be torn apart.
Once abundant, but declined drastically through last half of 20th century. Essentially gone from northeastern part of range. Continues to decline throughout the range. The subspecies on San Clemente Island in California is listed as endangered on the federal list.
Credits:
Yosef, R. 1996. Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus). In The Birds of North America, No. 231 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
Uploaded
May 27th, 2010
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