[TN-Bird] Loggerhead Shrike
- From: "William T. Thornton" <wtthornton@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:44:22 -0600
This morning, I had an email from my daughter-in-law in Mississippi with a
query about Loggerhead Shrikes. I couldn't answer her question but I found it
interesting that in the midst of looking up information for her, there were a
couple of messages on TN-Birds about Loggerheads. My daughter-in-law works at
Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, MS and yesterday spotted a Loggerhead Shrike.
Office mates helped her I.D. the bird which she thinks is migratory in her
region of South Mississippi. Later yesterday she spotted a Loggerhead again.
It was sitting on a telephone line above a barbed wire fence on which was
hanging a dead frog. She thinks she saw the "butcher bird" in action and that
the frog was a recent kill of the loggerhead. Her husband, on the other hand,
used his vast legal education and told her the guys at work were probably
taking her "for a ride" over the habits of the Loggerhead. That's when she
emailed me -- for information and confirmation that she could have seen a
Loggerhead/"butcher-bird" at work. I think she did.
Anyway, to get us back on topic, one of the research sites she used to help
I.D. the bird was Cornell at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/LOGSHR/ That
reference states that " Loggerhead Shrikes are capable of carrying more than
their own weight in flight. They have been observed lifting off with such large
prey as a Mourning Dove and a 16" long rattlesnake." David Allen Sibley, THE
SIBLEY GUIDE TO BIRDS, p 341. states that a Loggerhead Shrike weighs 1.7 ounces
or 48 grams and on page 255 states that a Mourning Dove weighs 4.2 ounces or
120 grams. The lifting capacity of a Loggerhead is thus most impressive -- but
I don't believe our outside cats have to fear this little bird!
Terry Thornton
Rinnie, TN (North of Crossville on the Cumberland Plateau)
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