Impaling prey takes practice. Lots of it.
I’ve posted photos of this shrike before but this one is new to my blog.
1/1250, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Shrikes are famously known for impaling their prey on sharp projections but it’s a behavior that takes practice to do well and this young Loggerhead Shrike needed all the practice ‘he’ could get. Here the youngster is enjoying part of his dragonfly meal after struggling for some time to get the insect impaled on a sharp twig at lower left. It took considerable fumbling and bumbling before he got it to stay on the twig.
Dragonflies have two pairs of wings but only one of them can be seen attached to the impaled body of the insect. That’s because the other pair, and the head of the dragonfly, are in the process of being swallowed by the shrike.
I photograph shrikes often but this is a behavior I’ve only documented a few times because they typically impale their prey deep within thickets where they’re almost impossible to see, much less photograph. In this instance I was lucky to be close, so close that this photo is full frame (uncropped), so both bird and dragonfly can be seen reasonably well. Despite all the clutter.
This is the time of year that young shrikes are endlessly practicing their prey-impaling technique. If our current pattern of stormy weather ever clears out I’d like to get ‘out there’ and see if I can photograph the behavior again.
Good luck with that.
Ron
Of course they need practice. The precision required to impale something as small and as fragile as a dragonfly blows me away. I struggle to thread a needle these days and the needle doesn’t break if I miss.
Brilliant shot – though not a meal I am tempted by…
EC, they have the instinct to impale their prey but that instinct doesn’t come with skill. That only comes with practice.
LOTS of practice.
Looking at that photo makes me feel like I need a glass of water. Got to wonder just how much of that thing is digestible.
There’s lot of good stuff to digest. Birds often remove insect wings but not always. Remember, the forward portion of the stomach (proventriculus) is extremely acidic (often less than pH 2) and that acid and the enzymes involved breakdown a lot of material. Parts not digested, like some wings and exoskeletons, are compacted by the rear portion of the stomach (gizzard) into a tight pellet that is later cast out. Ron has excellent photos of that process as well.
Michael, Dan’s comment answers your question well. Anything below a pH of 3.5 is considered to be “ultra-acidic” so a pH of 2 will break down just about anything a bird might eat.
Like a raptor, the Shrike’s gut will form a pellet of the scales and other indigestible stuff and hack it up. I’ve even seen a Robin hack up a pellet.
And I’ve photographed shrikes hacking up pellets several times.
Fabulous photo, thank you for sharing your photos, knowledge, and experience!
Thanks, Janis.
When I first glanced at the photo I did see the impaled dragonfly, but I did not notice the 2nd wing in the beak of the Shrike. Outstanding photo – love it. Even with all the clutter the Shrike stands out. All my photos of Loggerhead Shrikes are just posing on a branch. I have never seen one with a kill of any kind. Now though will have to look closer to see if I am missing anything.
Often when I am around one of our lakes looking for bird opportunities I will take photos of the various dragonflies.
Everett, check the barbs on barbed wire in areas where shrikes are found. They often impale their prey on the barbs and on the wire they’re easy to see.
I can’t imagine that a dragonfly wing would be digestible. Seems like the insect equivalent of eating fish scales. This photo reminds me of Tom Hanks in “Big” when he tried to eat the Beluga caviar.
I’d never seen it. So….
(geez, that stuff sells for $3,200 to $4,500/lb)
Perfect.
Clutter or not, that’s a pretty impressive shot! Thanks again for showing me things I’d never get to see otherwise.
Thank you, Burrdoo.
I hope you get out soon, too, but aren’t we tickled to get RAIN, at last !
Tickled indeed, Kris. I got 3/4″ in my rain gauge Wed. evening. That’s a lot for here.
Good one! I’ve seen the results, but never the process – may be to do with not having many Shrikes around…… 😉 At first I thought the wing was it’s tongue – a weird one at that! OOPS!
Little rummy this morning – still 75 at 2:30 this morning – FINALLY got down to 65 and now climbing again. With only a small bedroom AC and and old house the 90’s are killing me……….. UGH!
Judy, it was 77° here when I got up, thanks to cloud cover. On the MT farm in the summer it always seemed to cool off sufficiently at night, which is one of the things I always appreciated about living that far north.
Winters were another story.
Cloud cover contributed to it………we’re somewhat spoiled with it “usually” cooling off at night in summer.