Adult. Photo: John-Alexander Kay/Audubon Photography Awards
Lanius borealis
| Conservation status | No clear evidence of decreasing numbers in North America, but the species should be watched, since various kinds of shrikes around the world are showing declines. An odd historical note: in the 1870s, when the House Sparrow from Europe had just been introduced here, a warden was hired to shoot Northern Shrikes on the Boston Commons in winter to protect the sparrows! Although the warden killed as many as 50 shrikes one winter, this episode probably had little effect on the total population of the species. |
|---|---|
| Family | Shrikes |
| Habitat | Semi-open country with lookout posts; trees, scrub. Breeds in far north in partly open or scattered spruce woods and in willow and alder scrub along streams or edges of tundra. Winters in similar semi-open areas, sometimes in open grassland with a few high perches, but seems to prefer some brushy areas nearby. |
Forages by watching from an exposed perch, then darting out in swift, powerful flight after prey is spotted. Uses its heavy hooked bill to kill its prey, although small birds attacked in flight may be forced to the ground first with the shrike's feet. Dead prey is sometimes impaled on a thorn and then eaten later.
Clutch size varies, often 4-7 eggs, up to 9 in Alaska. Eggs pale gray or greenish white, spotted with brown, olive, and gray. Incubation is probably mostly or entirely by female, about 15-17 days. Young: Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 19-20 days after hatching, are tended by parents for several more weeks.
Both parents feed nestlings. Young leave the nest about 19-20 days after hatching, are tended by parents for several more weeks.
Includes small birds, rodents, large insects. Varied diet includes many small songbirds, especially in winter and early spring; also many voles and other small rodents, and many large insects when available. Especially in Eurasia, also known to eat lizards, frogs, snakes.
Male sings to defend nesting territory and perhaps to attract a mate, giving a surprisingly complex song that includes imitations of other birds. Nest: Placed in a low tree or large shrub, often in spruce or willow, usually 6-15' above the ground. Nest (probably built by both sexes) is a loosely made, bulky, open cup of twigs, grass, bark strips, moss, lined with feathers and animal hair.
Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect this bird’s range in the future.
Zoom in to see how this species’s current range will shift, expand, and contract under increased global temperatures.
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases. The same climate change-driven threats that put birds at risk will affect other wildlife and people, too.
Famous for impaling their victims, these songbirds first use a special maneuver to break the necks of small rodents.
Research shows that this predator's mask might serve the same purpose as the eye black athletes wear.
Eventually we'll all be cyborgs, so you might as well start thinking about it.
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