Predatory shrike hunts in open areas
Pesticides and habitat loss contributing to birds’ decline
The loggerhead shrike is a predatory songbird with hawk-like hunting behaviors. This shrike is a year-round resident throughout New Mexico. Its body is relatively small at 9 inches long. It is mainly white with a light grayish back and black wings with white wing patches that are mainly seen in flight. The shrike has a distinctive black mask and a short, stubby bill.
Loggerhead is a synonym for “blockhead.” This refers to the large size of the bird’s head compared to its body. A close relative to the loggerhead shrike is the Northern shrike, which is a bit larger at 10 inches in length and seen only during winter months in New Mexico.
The shrike prefers open areas with low trees and scattered bushes. This includes grasslands, agricultural fields, riparian habitat and desert scrub lands. I sometimes see loggerhead shrikes conspicuously perched in small trees in the foothills of Albuquerque and north of Socorro at the Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex.
Shrikes commonly use low trees, fence posts and utility wires as a perch to search for prey. They will also hover hunt or land hunt on the ground where they spread their wings while flashing their wing patches in order to startle prey. Shrikes’ foods include a variety insects, rodents, birds and reptiles. Although the loggerhead shrike has hawk-like hunting behaviors, it does not have large talons to grasp prey, so will sometimes cache its prey on sharp objects like barbed wire or thorns on trees to immobilize them. Shrikes impale noxious prey like monarch butterflies for up to 3 days before they eat them. This allows time for the poison to break down.
During the summer nesting season the male shrike caches, or stores prey, throughout its territory. These caches are called “larders” or “pantries.” A well-stocked “pantry” can help the male shrike attract a mate.
The loggerhead shrike is fairly numerous in the south and west, however, populations in many areas are in steep decline. This shrike has been listed as endangered, threatened or of special concern in several states and Canada. It is believed that widespread use of pesticides from the 1940s to the 1970s attributed to the decline through ingestion of pesticide-laced prey. Habitat destruction from urban development and over grazing have also contributed to the decline. Recovery is hopeful for this unique bird if habitat is restored and the causes of the decline are reversed.