{"id":8930,"date":"2013-07-17T04:26:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T10:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8930"},"modified":"2026-01-31T05:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:41:47","slug":"ever-been-mobbed-by-loggerhead-shrike-juveniles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/17\/ever-been-mobbed-by-loggerhead-shrike-juveniles\/","title":{"rendered":"Ever Been Mobbed By Loggerhead Shrike Juveniles?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CellCell phone shot of Loggerhead Shrike fledgling on pickup gate<\/span><\/p>\n

I have!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The past few times I have photographed the young Loggerhead Shrikes on Antelope Island<\/span><\/a> they have perched on the tail gate of the pickup, walked on the roof, flown extremely close to the windows and lenses, perched on the pickup mirrors, and landed on perches so close that I feel my only option is to take portraits of them.<\/p>\n

There has been as many as three of the fledglings on the pickup at once, every where you look… Loggerhead Shrikes!<\/p>\n

The photo above is from my cell phone and it was cropped a lot, sorry for the poor image quality. There was another bird perched on the side of the pickup bed at the same time but I couldn’t fit them both in the frame.<\/p>\n

\"LoggerheadLoggerhead Shrike juvenile on the pickup hood<\/span><\/p>\n

This little Loggerhead Shrike was on the hood of the pickup looking for things to eat, I took this with my Nikon D200 with the 18-200mm VR lens attached through the windshield.<\/p>\n

I think that white\u00a0thing in front of the shrike was the reflection of a piece of paper on the dash.<\/p>\n

\"LoggerheadLoggerhead Shrike juvenile with plastic trash<\/span><\/p>\n

I also saw this Loggerhead Shrike dive into a sagebrush and it came back up with this clear piece of plastic that it tried to eat. I must say that seeing this made me angry because our trash can kill birds and wildlife and shouldn’t be left where they can get to it. Someone was a litterbug.<\/p>\n

This bird\u00a0was banded by researchers from the Great Salt Lake Institute (GSLI) at Westminster College who are studying the uptake of mercury from the Great Salt Lake in spiders and the birds that eat them.<\/p>\n

\"FledglingFledgling Loggerhead Shrike portrait<\/span><\/p>\n

These Loggerhead Shrikes have been fearless and gutsy, perching so close to the pick up that you can almost reach out and touch them. For this image I had to turn off my limiter just to be able to bring the shrike into focus and even at f9 I was able to see the focus drop off in areas but since I was at 1\/100 I couldn’t go to f11 and have sufficient shutter speed.<\/p>\n

\"AreAre you a bug? Head on portrait of a juvenile Shrike<\/span><\/p>\n

My depth of field was not deep enough for the head on pose of this image but I sure laughed when I viewed it on my monitor. The juvenile did seem to be curious about my lens, perhaps it saw its reflection in the glass or maybe it thought I was a giant bug.<\/p>\n

\"AnotherAnother fledgling Loggerhead Shrike portrait<\/span><\/p>\n

This was the same shrike as shown in the two images above. It still amazes me that these young shrikes would repeatedly fly in to land so close. Looking into the bird’s eye\u00a0I can see the sun rising over the hill behind me, the fluffy clouds and bits of blue sky.<\/p>\n

I can also see\u00a0the separation of individual feathers, bits of left over food on its bill and those wonderful black rectal bristles that almost appear to be eyelashes.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenilePerched Loggerhead Shrike juvenile<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I was mobbed by Loggerhead Shrike<\/span><\/a> juveniles and I didn’t mind a bit because it afforded me the opportunity to observe and photograph them up close and it was fascinating! Being a bird photographer is great.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Loggerhead Shrike photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I was mobbed by Loggerhead Shrikes and I didn’t mind a bit because it afforded me the opportunity to observe and photograph them up close and it was fascinating! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":167846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,247,26],"tags":[4142,11978,4141,4067,4071,4171,11046,4746,3906,3907,2315,9474,4193],"class_list":["post-8930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-loggerhead-shrikes","category-utah","tag-close-up","tag-desert-island","tag-fledgling","tag-immature","tag-juvenile","tag-lanius-ludovicianus","tag-plastic","tag-portraits","tag-shrike","tag-shrikes","tag-summer-3","tag-trash","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-fledgling-close-up-mia-mcpherson-5385.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2k2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101743,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/23\/loggerhead-shrike-population-decline-concerns\/","url_meta":{"origin":8930,"position":0},"title":"Loggerhead Shrike Population Decline Concerns","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 23, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"About two weeks ago I found an adult Loggerhead Shrike perched on a lichen covered rock in northern Utah a good distance from the road that I was on.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Loggerhead Shrike perched on a lichen covered rock, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-lichen-rocks-mia-mcpherson-6340.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-winter-mia-mcpherson-9820.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8779,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/03\/juvenile-loggerhead-shrike-close-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":8930,"position":2},"title":"Juvenile Loggerhead Shrike Close Up","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday a family of Loggerhead Shrikes kept us busy for a bit as the juveniles begged the adults to feed them and the adults were hunting food to bring to the rather noisy youngsters on Antelope Island State Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Loggerhead Shrike close up, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2266.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2266.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2266.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-close-up-mia-mcpherson-2266.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8838,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/09\/recently-fledged-loggerhead-shrike\/","url_meta":{"origin":8930,"position":3},"title":"Recently Fledged Loggerhead Shrike","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It won't be long before these young Loggerhead Shrikes earn the name \"Butcher Bird\" by following their parents wing beats!","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Recently fledged juvenile Loggerhead Shrike, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4034.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4034.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-juvenile-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4034.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":24693,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/05\/27\/loggerhead-shrike-fledglings-are-out-and-about\/","url_meta":{"origin":8930,"position":4},"title":"Loggerhead Shrike Fledglings are Out and About","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"On the 20th of May I saw my first of the year Loggerhead Shrike fledglings but it wasn't until the 24th that I was able to photograph this young shrike.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"First of year photo of a juvenile Loggerhead Shrike, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, 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days ago I posted a portrait of a juvenile Loggerhead Shrike that I had photographed on Antelope Island State Park, today I am posting an image of an adult Loggerhead Shrike taken a day after I photographed the young shrike.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Calling adult Loggerhead Shrike, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-perched-mia-mcpherson-3097.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/loggerhead-shrike-adult-perched-mia-mcpherson-3097.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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