Loggerhead Shrike Eating

Photographic artwork by Dawn Currie. Loggerhead Shrike enjoying a snack. Photographed in River Lakes Conservation Area in Rockledge,... more

by Dawn Currie

Title

Loggerhead Shrike Eating

Artist

Dawn Currie

Medium

Photograph - Digital

Description

Photographic artwork by Dawn Currie. Loggerhead Shrike enjoying a snack. Photographed in River Lakes Conservation Area in Rockledge, Florida.

Awards and PSA International Exhibitions:
- 2017 Atlantic International Photographic Exhibition
- 2017 New York - Manhattan International Exhibition

Featured on Fine Art America/Pixels:
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The loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) is a passerine bird. It is the only member of the shrike family endemic to North America.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the Loggerhead Shrike as a songbird with a raptor’s habits. A denizen of grasslands and other open habitats throughout much of North America, this masked black, white, and gray predator hunts from utility poles, fence posts and other conspicuous perches, preying on insects, birds, lizards, and small mammals. Lacking a raptor’s talons, Loggerhead Shrikes skewer their kills on thorns or barbed wire or wedge them into tight places for easy eating. Their numbers have dropped sharply in the last half-century.

Loggerhead Shrikes impale noxious prey such as monarch butterflies and eastern narrow-mouthed toads—then wait for up to three days to eat them, which allows time for the poisons to break down. These shrikes also eat the heads and abdomens of toxic lubber grasshoppers, while discarding the insect’s poisonous thorax.

Uploaded

April 5th, 2017