Loggerhead Shrike

[Joseph Przybyla]

Last night Daniel Cadieux posted a image of a Northern Shrike. This is an image of a Loggerhead Shrike for comparison. Interesting each has a unique behavior when hunting and feeding. Daniel said that the Northern Shrike would chase a bird until it tired, then killing it for prey. The Loggerhead Shrike eats insects, lizards, small rodents and birds but after catching them finds a sharp object to impale them on, the sharp object holding the prey while it eats. In this image it has used the spike of the barbed wire to the left of the bird, the remnants of the prey is still on the barb. Cornell describes Shrikes as songbirds with raptor characteristics. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 560 AWB, image captured from inside the car through open window
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017, cleaned up the eye in Photoshop and dodged in Lightroom
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Great looking bird and well captured, Joe. Beautiful feather patterns with sharp detail in blacks and whites. Nice even BG. Interesting and unique behavioral information about these birds.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu (http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu)

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the seemingly "surprised" look and overall pose. Good green BG. Great view of the hooked bill.

The Northern Shrikes will also use the "ambush" attack at times, and will also sometimes impale there prey. Shrikes are pretty darn interesting songbirds!

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Awesome image. Great head position and beautiful clean background.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Joe, love the proud pose from this fellow, and excellent exposure on the Shrike. Great story, and great that we can see some left over food.