Wildlife Highlight: Loggerhead Shrike

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead shrikes are predators and the remains of their victims may be more obvious than the birds themselves. Sometimes called “butcherbirds,” shrikes have a habit of impaling their small prey on thorns or barbed-wire fences in the pastures, fields and open brush lands where they hunt. Insects, frogs, snakes and even mice or birds are captured with the shrike’s strongly hooked bill; a notch or “tooth” near the bill tip severs the spinal cord. The shrike may dismember its prey soon after anchoring it on a sharp object or in the fork of a branch, or may return to it later.

The Loggerhead shrike breeds from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to Mexico, the northern Gulf Coast, and south Florida. It winters in the southern portion of its breeding range. It is the only shrike that occurs in Florida and is a permanent breeding resident in the state. The shrike is commonly spotted in winter in north and central Florida, but is uncommon in most coastal areas and rare in extreme south Florida. Eggs are laid in February or March and two or three broods are raised each season.

Shrikes hunt from fences, power lines, treetops or other conspicuous perches. About the size of a northern mockingbird, the loggerhead shrike has a gray back, a white throat and whitish chest, and a black mask. The head appears large and sports the stout, black, hooked bill. The wings are black with a white patch and the black tail has white outer feathers. The sexes look alike. The juveniles resemble the adult, but are a duller gray and have faint bars on the chest and back.

The shrike is declining in Florida and throughout its range possibly due to land use changes, pesticides and competition.

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