Purpose
We work to prevent the eastern loggerhead shrike from disappearing by building the wild population in Ontario, and studying the species to learn more about the threats they face.
Named for its disproportionately large — or “logger” — head, the loggerhead shrike is a medium-sized songbird, slightly smaller than a robin. It is usually spotted in short grasslands with scattered perches where it can be seen hunting from small trees, shrubs, and fencelines. Shrikes are fully predatory songbirds, and will hunt a variety of prey from smaller insects up to larger animals like rodents, snakes, frogs, and even other songbirds. Smaller prey can be eaten in one bite, but for larger items, shrikes will impale their prey on thorns of barbed wire to hold their meal steady while they rip of bite-sized pieces with their hooked beak. From this behaviour they’ve been given the nickname, “the butcherbird”. Beyond just food-handling, shrikes will also create larder trees of impaled prey either to save food for later, or to attract mates.
Eastern loggerhead shrikes are overall grey birds, and are distinguished by their blocky head, white breast, thick bill with a sharply hooked tip, and racoon-like mask covering its eyes. In flight you may also see white patches on their black wings. The male and female look almost identical, though the females may have a slightly buffy breast compared to the clean white of males. The males are also more likely to sing, though for a songbird they are remarkably quiet. You’ll likely only hear them singing at the start of the breeding season to establish territory and attract a mate.
Breeding for both males and females eastern loggerhead shrikes starts after their first winter, and can live up to around 6 years in the wild. Eastern loggerhead shrikes will breed between mid April and late June, and they will lay around 5 eggs per clutch. The female alone will incubate the eggs and new hatchlings while the male brings enough food for his mate and the chicks. As the nestlings age, the female will spend less time at the nest and more time foraging. Around 15-18 days after hatching, the fledglings leave the nest but are still dependent on their parents for another 3 to 4 weeks.
The federal Recovery Strategy for eastern loggerhead shrike calls for a number of conservation measures, including habitat stewardship, conservation breeding and release, and research into the shrike’s migration routes and overwintering grounds.
After a precipitous drop in the wild eastern loggerhead shrike population in the 1990s, Environment Canada invited Wildlife Preservation Canada to lead the multi-partner recovery effort in 2003. Since then, the wild population size has fluctuated. Studies have shown that although the recovery effort has prevented the species from disappearing from Canada, more work is required to identify and address the causes of the species’ decline.
We work to prevent the eastern loggerhead shrike from disappearing by building the wild population in Ontario, and studying the species to learn more about the threats they face.
In 2023 we plan to have:
Find out how Wildlife Preservation Canada helps save eastern loggerhead shrike and other Canadian birds, and how you can make a difference.
If you see a Shrike, report it! Contact Wildlife Preservation Canada with the date, location, and any details about what you saw.
Q: What’s the difference between the loggerhead shrike and Northern Shrike?
A: The northern shrike (Lanius borealis) is larger, breeds at the northern edge of the boreal forests, and turns up throughout southern Canada during the winter. Loggerhead shrikes are smaller and found in Canada only during the breeding season, heading south in to the U.S. for the winter. The seasons generally separate the two species—you’ll find nothern shrikes duing the winter and loggerheads in the summer—but there is a period of overlap in early spring and late fall when you could possibly see either species. At that point, the best way to distiguish them is the mask: Loggerhead shrikes have a think black mask that covers most (if not all) of the eye, with a slight white eyebrow, whereas northern shrikes have a thinner mask that cuts through the eye, with a pronounced white eyebrow that meets over the bill.
Q: Can I create shrike habitat on my own property?
A: If you have grassland and within their range, keep it short (shrikes need to see prey moving), leave scattered shrubs and small trees for perching, and avoid pesticides. Even a few acres managed this way helps. Big impact comes when multiple landowners work together to create corridors of habitat, but individual properties matter too, especially in fragmented areas where every patch counts. See the landowner guide here.
Q: Why are we still not sure what’s happening to loggerhead shrikes on migration?
A: It’s genuinely hard to track. Birds head south from Ontario in the fall and we don’t know exactly where they go or what happens to them. Migration is a challenging time for any bird, and there are threats from collisions with buildings, predators, or ending up in a place where food is scarce. Also, though the shrikes found in Ontario are migratory, there are populations farther south that stay put year-round, so our migratory birds might end up in places where they’re having to compete with other resident shrikes. This is why our tagging and tracking of these birds is so crucial to understanding their threats.