{"id":45310,"date":"2017-01-22T07:13:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-22T14:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=45310"},"modified":"2017-01-22T08:39:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T15:39:32","slug":"loggerhead-shrikes-impaling-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/22\/loggerhead-shrikes-impaling-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Loggerhead Shrikes Impaling Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regular readers know that I occasionally recycle older posts because\u00a0most current blog followers have never seen them. In a recent email conversation with Patty Chadwick\u00a0she suggested that it might be fun for readers to see my very first\u00a0Feathered Photography blog post. Well, this is it – originally published on August 18, 2010. I’ve rewritten some of the text and many will notice that the images are smaller than usual – 720 pixels on the long side instead of 900. That’s just the size I used to post them back then…<\/em><\/p>\n

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Shrikes\u00a0are called “butcher birds” for good reason.\u00a0They regularly impale their prey (larger insects, small rodents,\u00a0reptiles\u00a0or birds) on thorns, barbed wire or other sharp projections and they do it for several reasons.\u00a0It helps them to tear\u00a0flesh into bite sized pieces, they use it as a method of caching (storing) their food and it helps them to survive eating the toxic lubber grasshopper because the toxins within the insect degrade to harmless substances\u00a0after being stored for\u00a0a couple of days.<\/p>\n

I had never seen or photographed this behavior, or evidence of it,\u00a0until this summer when I did both several times.<\/p>\n

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This juvenile Loggerhead Shrike is preparing to impale a dragonfly on one of several thorns we can see. I believe this young bird was practicing the behavior\u00a0partly because it seemed to have some difficulty with the impaling process. Here the shrike\u00a0appears to be trying to decide which thorn to use for its grisly task. Eventually the thorn just behind the lower wings of the dragonfly was chosen.<\/p>\n

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Here the shrike is in the process of impaling the dragonfly by puncturing its body with the end of the sharp thorn and then pulling the insect down its length. The young bird was tentative and clumsy as it practiced the behavior…<\/p>\n

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but it eventually\u00a0got the job done. The insect isn’t impaled dead-center but it isn’t going anywhere either. The shrike seemed to inspect its work for a few moments…<\/p>\n

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and then tore off a chunk, including wings, and gobbled it down. Here we can see that the thorn actually did impale the prey. Soon after this shot was taken the shrike removed what was left of the dragonfly from the thorn, flew with it to a different perch and then swallowed the rest of its meal.<\/p>\n

Raptors use their powerful talons to hold their prey down while they tear pieces off to swallow but shrikes don’t have talons so impaling their\u00a0larger prey before ripping off\u00a0chunks is a functional alternative.<\/p>\n

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Shrikes also kill and eat small rodents.\u00a0Several times recently I observed them attempting to catch voles (small rodents resembling mice). Shrikes are often referred to as “wannabe raptors” and they have some raptor adaptations including a tomial tooth (falcon tooth) on their beak that allows them to sever the spinal cord of prey. They also have the ability to carry their own weight in flight but their lack of talons makes tearing a small rodent apart very difficult.<\/p>\n

So they often impale voles on sharp projections (or wedge them between branches) to give them the leverage needed\u00a0to tear them apart. The images below are of poor quality but they do\u00a0document the behavior.<\/p>\n

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This adult Loggerhead Shrike had previously impaled or cached a vole in a dense thicket of branches. The bird was in shade and because of all the foreground twigs I had great difficulty focusing on the bird but we can see its eye within the black eye-stripe and its toes grasping the branch at bottom. The bird has torn off a furry piece of the vole which is in its beak to the right. What’s\u00a0left of the vole is up top,\u00a0including one foot sticking\u00a0up.<\/p>\n

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The shrike had returned to tear off a snack and here we see that chunk of vole in its beak and the rest of the blurry rodent at upper left.<\/p>\n

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Eating rodent prey in this condition is a messy job and it usually shows. This is the same bird after it finished eating and flew to a more exposed perch. It almost looks like there was as much vole left on its face as it was able to swallow.<\/p>\n

This photo invariably brings back a memory for me – of my daughter Shannon eating her first bowl of spaghetti with her\u00a0fingers\u00a0while sitting in\u00a0her high chair as a very young child.<\/p>\n

It makes me smile.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Shrikes are called “butcher birds” for good reason.<\/p>\n

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