'I like the fascinating shrike' one of best poems, Scientific name of the Northern Shrike Lanius excubitor means butcher watchman

Posted Feb 9, 2012 By Michael Runtz

EMC Lifestyle - Years ago I read a book filled with little poems about birds.

One of my favourites went more or less like this: "I like the Shrike because with a thorn for a guillotine, it does its work so neat and clean. A practical bird whose common sense must be immense for tell me who has ever heard of such a thing as a Loggerhead Shrike that tried to sing."

There are two interesting facts about shrikes revealed in the ditty. One is that it uses thorns to hold its prey. The other is that shrikes are not good singers. Two species of shrikes can be found in our region. Loggerhead Shrikes, the subject of the poem in that forgotten book, are found here only in summer.

When I was young, they were reasonably common. I can recall walking from Arnprior along the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks across the Madawaska River trestle to what was then McEwen's Creek (now under 75 feet of water) and finding no fewer than four active shrike nests all full of babies! Today only one nest is known in all of the Ottawa Valley. Their decline is not fully understood but likely development of their nesting habitat and increased vehicular are key factors.

The other shrike is the Northern Shrike, which only nests in Ontario in the northern muskeg. They appear in our area only in late fall and winter.

There have been a number of Northerns around this winter, and I was fortunate to see three on Sunday. Both species of shrikes are similar in that they like to perch atop a shrub or small tree for a good view of the area in which they hunt.

They are robin-sized (Northerns are a bit larger than Loggerheads) and sport a black mask. The bill is large and is hooked at the tip, more so in the Northern. Their feet are more like those of a songbird than of a bird of prey, and the hefty bill is their killing tool. On it lies a special cutting notch, the tomial tooth, that is used to sever the neck vertebrae of the victim.

Despite what the poem suggests, shrikes do not cut the heads off their prey on a thorn. Rather, they impale their prey to hold it while they eat it, or to store it for later consumption. If hunting is good, a larder of stored food results. It is rather unnerving to walk through an old field with scattered hawthorns and find dozens of small carcasses hanging from the thorns.

Shrikes will carry small prey in the bills but use their feet to catch and carry birds. One of the shrikes I saw recently was carrying a bird in that fashion.

Shrikes are fascinating birds. The scientific name of the Northern Shrike says it all: Lanius excubitor means "butcher watchman."

I truly like the shrike!

On February 28 I am doing a special presentation for the Innis Point Bird Observatory's annual dinner/fundraiser. Details of this worthwhile event are found at: http://www.ofnc.ca/events/IPBO-Fundraiser-Feb2012.pdf

The Nature Number is 613-387-2503, email is mruntz@start.ca.