The Northern Shrike, or Great Grey Shrike as it is known in Europe, is a migratory bird that can found in northern Europe and Asia and in North America. It is known for impaling captured prey upon a sharp point, such as a thorn or the barbs of barbed wire. Thus secured they can be ripped with the strong hooked bill of the Northern Shrike, as its feet are not suited for tearing.
It looks much like a Loggerhead Shrike, but the Loggerhead Shrike is smaller and its black mask extends across the forehead above the beak, which is usually not the case with the Northern Shrike. Finally, the beak of the Northern Shrike is longer than that of the Loggerhead.
The Northern Shrike is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be stable, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
The Loggerhead Shrike and Northern Shrike can both be found across North America, so how do you tell them apart? Well, there are three important differences between these two species: 1. The Northern Shrike is bigger than the Loggerhead (one to two inches longer); 2. The... Read more »
