By Sally Siko

A couple of weeks ago, I set out on a soggy Saturday morning to go birding at the Sandhills Gamelands in central NC.
Although it poured rain for the first two hours of the day, seeing these Loggerhead Shrikes made venturing into deluge worth it!
Normally Shrikes are difficult to approach (especially in open areas) but I think the birds were less inclined move due to the stormy weather.
It was neat to get a look at them from such a close range.

Aa predatory songbirds the Northern Shrikes diet consists primarily of mice, voles, grasshoppers and other insects. Like their cousin the Northern Shrike, they’ll occasionally eat other songbirds as well when the opportunity presents itself.
It gets crazier than that though!
Because they lack strong talons or claws, shrikes often impale food on branches, thorns or barbed wire fences to help them tear their prey into bite-sized pieces.
For this grisly meat hanging characteristic, shrikes have earned the moniker of “butcher birds”.
Though it’s indeed an unsettling means to a meal, it behavioral adaptations like these which ensure the Shrikes survival.

Their favored habitats include wide open, tall grassy fields, overgrown hedge rows and agricultural areas where their prey is found.
Usually they are spotted sitting on dead tree snags, on fence lines and power lines overlooking the fields, constantly scanning the ground below for a snack.

Interestingly, this is the third year in a row that I’ve encountered the pair of Shrikes at this location during early March.
I’ve since visited the Gamelands a few times during the summertime to see if they around but with no luck.
This makes sense because although
Loggerhead Shrikes may generally be found throughout the central and eastern regions of Tarheel State year round, the highest amount of recorded sightings annually occur just a bit further south closer to the SC border during the summer months.
It really was nice to catch an early glimpse of this tiny predator once again!

Photos by @sally_siko of @bestlife_birding on my mighty mirrorless monster, the @canonusa #R5

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