World Migratory Bird Day 2024: The plight of insects and shrikes

Posted onMay 9, 2024|Eastern Loggerhead Shrike, Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Recovery, Loggerhead Shrike, News and Events

A breeding pair and a dragonfly overlook their home. Photo: P. Rathner

Saturday May 11, 2024 is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), a global event that takes place in the spring and fall to celebrate migratory birds and to bring attention to the threats they face. This year’s WMBD campaign focuses on insects and the crucial role that they play on the timing, route, and drive for birds as they make their migratory journeys around the world.

We always like to relate the WMBD campaign back to our (perhaps slightly biased) favourite migratory songbird: the eastern loggerhead shrike, and this year’s theme is no exception. Insects make up a significant portion of this endangered songbird’s diet. Shrikes are observed by our field teams hunting, foraging, and delivering insects to their young multiple times a day. The team has found crickets, ground beetles, and grasshoppers impaled on thorns or barbed wire by shrikes, and regularly come across shrike pellets that are made up almost entirely of beetle carapaces. Insect larvae are soft, full of nutrients, and make up favourite items for nuptial gifts and for feeding young, especially for pairs in our conservation breeding and release program.

A ground beetle found impaled on barbed wire in Napanee, ON. Photo: H. Polowyk

Shrike pellets made entirely up of beetle carapaces. Photo: C. Muise

Eastern loggerhead shrike declines can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the decrease in availability of high-quality grassland habitat. Habitat loss and degradation is undeniably intertwined with the decline in available insect abundance and diversity, which presents a significant problem for birds relying on insects as an essential source of energy to fuel their migration in the spring and fall. Identifying and maintaining high-quality habitat, which includes maintaining the availability of high-quality insect prey, remains a high priority action in eastern loggerhead shrike recovery efforts. The plight of insects and shrikes- in many ways- are one and the same! To be a shrike biologist is to have a deep love, respect, and understanding of the ecosystem that shrikes need to thrive, which includes a rich abundance of healthy insect populations.

An adult loggerhead shrike giving its young a sizeable pennant lunch. Photo: P. Rathner.

What can we do to help insects? Include native plants in our gardens or our community garden, reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides when we can, participate in community science programs like bumblebee watch , and foster an appreciation of insects with children, as they will grow to become stewards of the natural world. Becoming an advocate for insects does so much for the birds we know and love, including the loggerhead shrike.

Adult loggerhead shrike impaling a dragonfly. Photo: P. Rathner.

Jane Spero

Lead Biologist – Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Recovery

Jane holds a Master’s degree in animal biosciences from the University of Guelph, where she studied building collision injuries in migratory songbird species. Jane worked as a rehabilitation supervisor, where she was responsible for the care, treatment, and reintroduction of injured and orphaned wildlife, including many species at risk.

Recent articles on the project

Local Naturalist clubs meet at the Carden Alvar to talk shrikes

, ,
Read more
/by

We need your help

Donate to save endangered species

Make a donation

© 2023 Wildlife Preservation Canada

Wildlife Preservation Canada
5420 Highway 6 North
Guelph, ON N1H 6J2

Toll free 1 (800) 956-6608
Phone 1 (519) 836-9314
admin@wildlifepreservation.ca

Privacy and social media policy

Territory Acknowledgement

WPC is headquartered in Guelph, Ontario on the homelands of many nations, including the Anishinaabek, Neutral, Métis, Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and on the treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We work across Turtle Island, and have deep gratitude to all the Indigenous Peoples who have been, and continue to be, stewards and protectors the lands on which we rely.

Follow us on social

Charitable Registration No.

89171 0535 RR0001