Habitat
These shrikes like to live in flat, open grasslands with scattered trees and shrubs that offer nesting sites and hunting perches. They can often be found in alvars: unique habitats consisting of shallow soils over limestone bedrock. Elsewhere, cattle ranching and pastures help to keep the grass short for foraging.
An example of cow pasture in the Carden Alvar. This type of habitat is perfect for the eastern loggerhead shrike, as it can perch in nearby trees and look out over the pasture for prey. Without the help from local, private landowners, we wouldn’t have access to these pastures for research.
The Canadian populations are migratory, although many U.S. populations are not. Where our Canadian eastern loggerhead shrikes spend their winters still remains largely a mystery, though we do speculate they spend their winters down in the southeastern states, anywhere between Texas and Florida. Some even end up staying down south and integrating into the non-migratory populations!
In Canada, they originally could be found anywhere from Manitoba to New Brunswick. Today, they are restricted to several small isolated pockets in Ontario. These pockets include the Carden and Napanee limestone plains, where breeding pairs are consistently located. Individuals or breeding pairs are occasionally spotted on the Smiths Falls plain, in the Pembroke and Renfrew areas, in Grey and Bruce Counties on the Bruce Peninsula, and on Manitoulin Island.
