Species Name: Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus).

Summary: A small gray, black, and white predatory bird of open areas. Once abundant, the Loggerhead Shrike is now declining over much of its range, especially the northeast region of its range.

Description:

• Length: 8-9 in.
• Wingspan: 11-13 in.
• Weight: 1.24 - 1.77 oz.
• Medium sized songbird.
• Gray back.
• White throat and whitish chest.
• Black mask.
• Large head.
• Medium long tail.
• Stout black bill with hook at end.
• Wings black with white patch.
• Tail black with white outer feathers.
• Sexes look alike.

Range: Breeds from central Prairie Provinces and Canadian border southward to Florida and southern Mexico.

Winters from very southern Oregon, southern Kansas, Tennessee, and Virginia southward to southern Mexico.

Behavior: Scans for food from perches. Kills by biting prey in back of neck, severing spinal cord. Often flies low and swoops up to perch.

Sound: Song consists of short trills or clear notes repeated several times. Call a series of harsh screeching notes.

Food: Primarily insects, but also feeds on small reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, and birds.

Cool Facts:

• The Loggerhead Shrike is a predator, but lacks the strong feet and talons of a raptor.
• It has a strongly hooked bill for gripping flesh, and a strong notch or "tooth" near the bill tip that helps sever the spinal cord.
• It uses thorns and barbed wire to impale its prey while it rips it apart, and may also wedge prey in fork of tree for same purpose.
• Sometimes called the Butcher bird.

Similar Species:

• Northern Shrike is larger, with a larger bill with a pale base to the lower mandible, a narrower black mask that does not extend across the forehead. Also, bill has a more pronounced hook.
• Northern Mockingbird similarly colored but lacks the black mask and has a narrow pointed bill.

References: Cornell Lab of Ornithology - All About Birds - Bird Guide, Book of North American Birds, 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.

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