You'll most likely see an Eastern Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus migrans) perched on a treetop, fence post or telephone wire in an open area on the lookout for food. When it spots a potential meal, the shrike swoops in low to the ground and kills its prey with a quick blow from its strong hooked beak.

Shrikes eat large insects such as grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies and beetles. Occasionally they capture snakes, mice, voles and even small birds. What makes the shrike unusual is its specialized feeding behaviour. After killing its prey, the shrike sometimes stores its catch on thorns or barbed wire where it can easily tear the food apart.

If you come across a small creature impaled in this way, there
may be a shrike in the neighbourhood!

The Eastern Loggerhead Shrike is slightly smaller than a robin. It has a gray-white breast, a bluish-gray back, a black tail and black wings marked with prominent white patches. A raccoon-like black face mask extends across the eyes and around to the back of the head. The bird is easily confused with its close relative, the Northern Shrike, which is larger, has a more barred underside, and is generally seen in Canada during the late fall and winter months when most loggerhead shrikes have migrated south for the winter. (For detailed information on how to tell the two apart, click here.) The loggerhead shrike's call is a disjointed warble similar to a mockingbird's. To download a recording (in wav file format) of the loggerhad shrike's call, click here.

• In southeast Manitoba, on the northern outskirts of Winnipeg
• In Ontario, on the Napanee Plain, the Carden Plain, the Smiths Falls Plain, Grey and Bruce counties and Manitoulin Island
• In Quebec, in the Outaouais region just north of Ottawa

Centuries ago, loggerhead shrikes lived on the plains and grasslands of eastern Canada. On the prairies, grazing plains bison and occasional fires kept the grasses at a height that created an ideal habitat for mice, voles and insects that are the shrike's primary food. The low grasses also made it easier for shrikes to spot potential prey as it hopped, scurried or slithered over the ground.

In the 19th century, after people moved into the grasslands and began clearing forests and expanding farms, shrikes in eastern North America took advantage of the new habitat. Their numbers grew. Today, however, intensive farming and grassland and urban development have all reduced the amount of shrike habitat — and the number of shrike.

A typical shrike site consists of open grassland with scattered scrubby growth.

Every feature of pastureland, old fields and natural grasslands serves a purpose:

• Hedgerows, scattered trees or thorny shrubs provide nesting and perch sites.
  
• Isolated, dense shrubs or trees provide the shrike with nesting sites. Favoured nesting trees in Ontario and Quebec are hawthorns (Crataegus sp.), red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and spruce.
• In southeastern Manitoba, shrikes prefer hawthorn, scattered willow (Salix sp.), small spruce (Picea sp.), and non-native caragana and Russian olive.