American Loggerhead Shrike Habitats: Gray Bodies, Cup Nests, Pale Eggs

Summary: North American loggerhead shrike habitats seasonally in Canada, year-round in Mexico and the United States claim gray bodies from pale eggs in cup nests.

loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus); Queen Valley, northwestern Joshua Tree National Park, southeastern California; Feb. 4, 2010: Robb Hannawacker/National Park Service/Joshua Tree National Park, Public Domain, via Flickr

North American loggerhead shrike habitats accept cultivators through Laniidae family predatory wildlife associations with plant-damaging pests and naturalists through distribution ranges seasonally in Canada and year-round in Mexico and the United States.

Loggerhead shrikes bear their common name as large-headed shriekers and the scientific name Lanius ludovicianus (butcher of Louisiana) from prey impalement practices of 18th-century Louisiana-dwelling shrikes. Ornithologists consider as the nominate subspecies, clustered today from Virginia to Florida, Carl Linnaeus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787) classification in 1766 of Lanius ludovicianus ludovicianus. They discuss such other subsequently described subspecies as Lanius ludovicianus anthonyi, excubitorides (synonymous with gambeli and sonoriensis), grinnelli, mearnsi, mexicanus (synonymous with nelsoni), miamensis and migrans.

Mysterious lifespans expect open or semi-open fields, orchards, parklands, pastures, scrublands, semi-deserts and woodlands with high-vantage, scattered perches in dense-leafed bushes, hedgerows, shelterbelts, shrubs and trees.

February through June facilitate two to three four- to seven-egg clutches at 3- to 30-foot (0.91- to 9.14-meter) heights, preferably in elm, fir, hackberry or Osage-orange.

Parents-to-be gather bark, grasses, stems, sticks and twigs for mothers-to-be to generate into bark-, cotton-, down-, feather-, hair-, rootlet-lined cup nests within six to 11 days. Cup nests hidden in dense foliage or Spanish moss house non-glossy, smooth, 0.91- to 1.06-inch (24- to 25-millimeter-) by 0.71- to 0.79-inch (18.7- to 20-millimeter) eggs. Mothers-to-be initiate 14- to 17-day incubations with the next-to-last brown-, buff-, gray- or purple-blotched, speckled or spotted, pale-banded buff, creamy white, dull white or gray egg.

Agro-industrialists, black rat-snakes, blue jays, crows, drivers, house wrens, kestrels, magpies, owls, raccoons, red-tailed hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, starlings and weasels jeopardize North American loggerhead shrike habitats.

Fathers-to-be keep incubating mates fed with ground-foraged, nest-portioned food while mothers-to-be keep light, moisture and temperature levels hatch-friendly by rotating and shielding incubating eggs from harm. Helpless hatchlings look bright orange because of naked skin, buff-yellow because of bills, white because of sparse down and yellow because of gape flanges and mouths. Fathers, then both parents, maintain food supplies while hatchlings manage feathering as 15-day-olds, nearby roosts as 17- to 21-day-olds and physical independence as 40- to 45-day-olds. Adults need carrion, crickets, frogs, goldfinches, grasshoppers, ground beetles, ground squirrels, lizards, mice, mourning doves, northern cardinals, roadkill, shrews, snakes, sparrows, turtles, verdins, voles and warblers.

North American loggerhead shrike habitats up to 6,561.68 feet (2,000 meters) above sea level offer winter-coldest temperatures at minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26.11 degrees Celsius).

Apple, ash, chittamwood, cottonwood, cypress, fir, grapevine, greenbrier, hawthorn, holly, locust, mesquite, mulberry, oak, pear, pine, plum, red-cedar, rose, soapberry, spruce, tree-of-heaven and willow prove shrike-friendly.

Barred, brown-gray bodies, brown masks, buff-barred wings and pale-based lower beaks versus brown upper-parts, faint-marked breasts and minimal masks respectively quicken juvenile and mature female identifications. Black eyes and masks, black hooked bills, gray crowns, feet, legs, underparts and upper-parts, white chins, white-edged, black, rounded tails and white-flashed black wings reveal adults. Fast-beat, gliding, swooping flight on 11.02- to 12.59-inch (28- to 32-centimeter) wingspans suggest 7.87- to 9.06-inch (20- to 23-centimeter), 1.24- to 2.12-ounce (35- to 60-gram) adults.

North American loggerhead shrike habitats transmit harsh chaa-chaa-chaa songs, trills and warbles seasonally north of, and seasonally and year-round south of and within, United States' borders.

illustration of eggs and nest of loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) under scientific synonym of Collurio ludovicianus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate IX, between pages 56-57: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus); Queen Valley, northwestern Joshua Tree National Park, southeastern California; Feb. 4, 2010: Robb Hannawacker/National Park Service, Public Domain, via Joshua Tree National Park @ Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuatreenp/12488581405/

illustration of eggs and nest of loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) under scientific synonym of Collurio ludovicianus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate IX, between pages 56-57: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34907627

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volumes 8-11, Birds I-IV, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. I. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34907587

Linnaeus, Carl. 1766. "6. Lanius ludovicianus." Systema Naturae, tomus I: 134. Editio Duodecima, Reformata. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946330

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Lanius ludovicianus Linnaeus 1766." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Passeriformes > Laniidae > Lanius.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pass.html