Northern Shrike Images

Northern Shrike Images, Facts and Information:

Lanius borealis (formerly Lanius excubitor)

• Northern Shrikes are soft gray with white throats and chests with a black mask, legs and hooked bills with large blocky heads.
• Some populations of Northern Shrikes are year round residents and some are migratory.
• Northern Shrikes are song birds with some of the behaviors of raptors. They can transport prey nearly as large as they are with their feet and smaller prey items with their bills.
• Northern Shrikes prefer open habitat with some shrubs or trees, especially those with spines for impaling their prey. They frequently are found on taiga and at the edge of taiga and tundra.
• Northern Shrikes eat insects, small mammals and birds.
• Northern Shrikes lay 4 to 9 eggs which hatch in 15 to 16 days. The female incubates and they are monogamous.
• A nickname for Northern Shrikes is “Butcher Bird”.
• A group of shrikes can be called a “watch” of shrikes.
• Northern Shrikes can live to be over 8 years old.

I hope you enjoy viewing my Northern Shrike photos.