Written and composed by Lindsey Hernandez

Loggerhead Shrike
Lanius ludovicianus

Walking through a forest alone, you might see a clump of fur or feathers on a branch. Upon closer inspection, you identify the small clump as the corpse of a small animal impaled onto a thorn, sharp stick, or a barb of wire. If this happens to you, do not panic. You are not in the midst of a macabre artist with a rodent corpse fetish.

Instead, you would be in the territory of the Loggerhead Shrike, aka the butcher bird. A bird that, lacking a raptor’s strong talons, skewers, or impales, its prey on thorns, barbed wire or wedges them in between tight branches. The birds will keep several prey impaled through winter as food stores. These stores are commonly called “larders” or “pantries” and may also help a male shrike attract a mate.

Grasshopper prey/Photo By Danielle Brigida/USFWS

The Lanius ludovicianus, Loggerhead Shrike, from afar can be confused for the Northern Mockingbird. A gray, thick-bodied songbird with a fairly long and rounded tail, it’s size and color match the state bird of Texas. The Loggerhead Shrike, though, has a blocky head, a black eye-mask and a thick bill with a small hook.

To spot a Loggerhead Shrike, open country with scattered shrubs and trees is their typical habitat, but the species can also be found in more heavily wooded habitats with large openings and in very short habitats with few or no trees.

They sit on low, exposed perches and scan for rodents, lizards, birds, and insects. They eat smaller prey (such as ground beetles) right away, but they are famous for impaling larger items on thorns or barbed wire to be eaten later.

Painting by John James Audubon, circa 1838, for his book Birds of America. A male and female Loggerhead Shrike vie for a dead mouse under one’s talon.

The Loggerhead Shrike is an endemic songbird to North America and one of only two species of shrike. They are a strong indicator species of grassland habitats, and therefore useful for understanding and managing grasslands in Texas. Loggerhead Shrike populations have declined by 76% since 1966.

It was previously believed that the female Loggerhead Shrike killed the male after mating. This erroneous information was the inspiration for the 1955 noir film Shrike. A film where a wife drives her husband to failure and insanity.

Sources include All About Birds, John James Audubon’s Birds of America, and texanbynature.org