Northern Shrike
Northern Shrike: Medium shrike with gray upperparts,pale gray underparts. Mask is black with white border, bill is heavy and slightly hooked. Wings are black with white patches. Tail is long, black, and white-edged. Legs and feet are black. Flight is swift and undulating on shallow rapid wing beats.
● Song:
"kdldi", "plid-plid", "fay, fay", "reed, reed, reed", "shraaaa"
● Foraging & Feeding:
Northern Shrike: Eats mostly insects, but also takes small birds and mammals, sometimes larger than itself. Forages from a high perch, swooping down to stun or kill prey with blows from its heavy, hooked bill; caches prey by impaling it on a sharp object such as a thorn or wire barb.
● Breeding & nesting:
Northern Shrike: Four to nine gray or green eggs, marked with olive, brown, and purple, are laid in a nest made of sticks, lined with feathers, hair, and fine materials, and built in a tree or shrub 12 to 20 feet above the ground. Incubation ranges from 15 to 16 days and is carried out by the female. Young fly at about 20 days old.
● Similar species:
Northern Shrike: Loggerhead Shrike is smaller, has a black mask that extends across top of bill, and shorter bill with less hooked tip.