Loggerhead Shrike

Lanius ludovicianus

Order PASSERIFORMES - Family LANIIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Food
7. Behavior
8. Reproduction
9. Conservation Status
10. Other Names

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.

Cool Facts

• 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.

Description

• Size: 20-23 cm (8-9 in)
• Wingspan: 28-32 cm (11-13 in)
• Weight: 35-50 g (1.24-1.77 ounces)

• 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.

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Immature

Juvenile similar to adult, but duller gray and with faint bars on chest and back.

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, and usually faint wavy barring on the chest. Immature Northern is brownish.
• Northern Mockingbird similarly colored, but lacks the black mask and has a narrow, pointed bill.

Sound

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

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds from central prairie provinces and Canadian border southward to Florida and southern Mexico.

Winter Range

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

Food

Insects, amphibians, small reptiles, small mammals, and birds.

Behavior

Foraging

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.

Reproduction

Egg Description

Grayish buff with dark spots around large end.

Clutch Size

Usually 5-6 eggs. Range: 1-9.

Young

Helpless with little down.

Conservation Status

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.

Other Names

Pie-grièche migratrice (French)
Alcaudon yanqui, Verdugo Americano (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

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.