Loggerhead Shrike

Lanius ludovicianus
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Occasional visitor to the Dish and Lagunita, especially from fall through spring. Forages on arthropods and small vertebrates in open areas. Ostensibly suitable breeding habitat present, but not known to nest on campus currently.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
F
I: 16-17 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
SHRUB
3 feet - 30 feet
(To 50 feet)
MF
5-6
(4-7)
MONOG
F: 17-21 DAYS
MF
SMALL
VERTE-
 BRATES
CARRION
AERIAL
PURSUIT
BREEDING: Open fields with scattered trees, open woodland, scrub. 2, occ 3 broods in s.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: male feeds female and performs flight display back and forth about 20' from female. Mock pursuits occur also.
NEST: Usu hidden below crown in crotch or on large branch, occ in vine tangle; bulky, well made of twigs, forbs, bark strips woven together, lined with fine materials.
EGGS: Grayish-buff, marked with gray, browns, black, often near large end. 1.0" (24 mm).
DIET: Mostly large insects, esp in w; includes esp birds, mice, lizards.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to c Mexico. Blue List 1972-86; declining everywhere, esp in c U.S.; San Clemente (CA) subspecies Endangered. Habitat loss and pesticides (esp in c portion of range) implicated in decline.
NOTES: Often sits immobile for long periods watching for prey (vision is excellent). Lacking the talons of raptors, it stuns or kills flying birds with a blow from its powerful beak; often caches prey by impaling on plant spine or barbed wire -- leading to the common name "butcher bird." Strong male fidelity to breeding territory. Nests earlier than most passerines. Male feeds incubating female, occ from his food cache; occ most of food fed by female to nestlings comes from male caches. Young fed 3-4 weeks postfledging. Sexes hold separate territories in nonbreeding season.
ESSAYS: Blue List; Hoarding Food; Site Tenacity; DDT and Birds.
REFERENCES: Applegate, 1977; Bohall-Wood, 1987; Fraser and Luukkonen, 1986; Morrison, 1980; Smith, 1973.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).