The Loggerhead Shrike is a songbird whose vocalizations are often not musical. It is also a predator that feeds on creatures ranging from small caterpillars to mice, lizards, small snakes, and birds. This is a bird of more open areas, but its nests are typically in a dense tangle of small branches of a tree or shrub. It hunts in open areas, often from a fence or utility wire. Its flight is typically low, direct, and fast. Shrikes often take advantage of insects, birds, and other small animals injured by traffic on our roads and – as a result of their typical low flight, are often highway victims themselves. Pruning of trees and shrubs to “open them up” is a major threat to shrikes (and other songbirds) because it opens their nests to predators. As a result of such pruning, highway traffic, and pesticides, Loggerhead Shrike populations have declined greatly.
Loggerhead Shrikes
