My Bad … It’s a Northern Shrike After All

Last night we got a wonderful photo of a shrike. In my excitement about identifying it, I got the website windows mixed up. Upon further review, this is a Northern Shrike, not a Logger head. https://amylawscigeek.com/2022/01/26/loggerhead-shrike/

So what’s the difference? Well, everything I claimed in my previous post was for a Loggerhead is really for a Northern — the narrow eye-stripe not going above the eye, the pale bill at the base. Another feature that I hadn’t realized is distinctive of Northern Shrikes is that they have a little bit of scalloping on their chest feathers — you can faintly see it here as mottling.

Northern Shrike with a narrow eye-band and scalloped feathers on it’s chest.

In contrast, a Loggerhead has a THICK eye band, a heavier beak and a pure white chest. Here’s a nice website that describes the two side-by-side. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Shrike/species-compare)

Loggerhead shrike in Texas. Courtesy Terry Ross at Wikipediea.
Lanius_ludovicianus_-Texas_-USA-8.jpg: Terry Rossderivative work: Snowmanradio, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Northern Shrikes are winter visitors to Colorado. And unlike the Loggerheads, Northern populations seem to be doing fine.

Amy Law

January 27, 2022

Colorado Mileposts

Loggerhead shrike, Northern Shrike

One response to “My Bad … It’s a Northern Shrike After All”

Loggerhead — OOOPS — Northern Shrike – Amy Law, Science Geek

January 27, 2022

[…] Author’s Note — after writing this post last night, I realized that I got the two browser windows confused, and wrongly identified the bird we saw as a Loggerhead, when it was actually a Northern Shrike. I have struck out the wrong name where appropriate. My next post compares the two birds. (https://amylawscigeek.com/2022/01/27/my-bad-its-a-northern-shrike-after-all/) […]

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