Loggerhead Shrike Meets Grasshopper

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Loggerhead Shrike with Grasshopper
One of my favorite things about birding is watching bird behavior.  To me, birding is not just about seeing the bird, but also enjoying what makes the species unique.  The Loggerhead Shrike is a perfect example of what makes birding so fascinating.  The Loggerhead Shrike is famous for impaling its prey on barbed wires or thorns.  The two most commonly described reasons for this are 1) storing food for later and 2) extra help as they eat, since the Shrike has no talons like hawks do.  The other day I photographed a Loggerhead Shrike capturing and eating a grasshopper, and I thought I'd share with you my photos that describe his process.

First, the Shrike flew out of sight, captured the grasshopper, and brought it back to his perch.

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Loggerhead Shrike after Capturing Grasshopper
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Shrike with Grasshopper
He then impaled the grasshopper on a barbed wire fence.

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Loggerhead Shrike with Impaled Grasshopper

Next he removed the hind legs from the grasshopper.

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Loggerhead Shrike Impaling Prey
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Loggerhead Shrike Removing Legs
He then removed the grasshopper from the barbed wire.

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Loggerhead Shrike with Grasshopper
He then held the grasshopper with his foot.

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Loggerhead Shrike
He then consumed his prey.

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Loggerhead Shrike
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Loggerhead Shrike
He then appears to be quite content.

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A Satisfied Loggerhead Shrike
While I'm no ornithologist, this suggest to me that he could have consumed the grasshopper without impaling it, but he chose to impale it so that he could more easily remove the legs.  According to the metadata in these photos, this whole process took just over one minute.  I took more photos of this behavior, which  you can see in my smugmug gallery for this day.

At any rate, seeing these kinds of moments is partly why I'm so fascinated with birding and bird photography.  Not every fascinating moment is quite this gruesome (as some would describe it), but birds do have unique behaviors that make them not just beautiful creatures, but interesting creatures to watch.

Comments

  1. Awesome photos! This sequence has some of the best Shrike Strike photos I've seen. You've must've been on a high fro the rest of the day. I especially like the second to last photo as the grasshopper goes down the hatch.
    A while back I had a good photo-op with a Loggerhead, but it was only eating mesquite leaves...
    On a quick side-note, the third picture in the sequence has the caption, "he then impaled the shrike (grasshopper) on a barbed wire fence"
    Thanks again for sharing.

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  2. Thank you for the compliment and the correction. I fixed the text. And you're right; I was on a high for the rest of the day. I was able to see this moment, several moments with an American Bittern, and a moment with a Pied-billed Grebe catching a fish. All three in one day was amazing.

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  3. Viewing this series of photographs as a series you can't help but feel some sympathetic pain for that grasshopper! How did the varying blues in the background come about? Would also love to know what shutter speed you used :)

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  4. Thanks, Joanie! I do feel a little bad for the grasshopper. I suspect the differences in the blue sky come from two causes: 1) we had to move the car a couple times to get a clear view of the shrike, since the wind was blowing the grasses in front of him, and 2) it was a sunny day, so the photos were contrasty, and I had to play with the "fill light" in Lightroom to recover detail in the shadows.

    All of these photos were taken at f/5.6 and ISO 250, and most of them were at 1/3200 sec. Thanks!

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  5. Awesome! We have a shrike around here. I have seen him try to lure in prey but never catch it. I'm happy for you to have witnessed this! Thank you for sharing the great photos.

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