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Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Birds Around Las Vegas, Wildlife Around Las Vegas
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)

General Description: Loggerhead Shrikes (Lanius ludovicianus) are medium-sized birds of the desert with a light chest, gray back, black wings and tail, a black bandit mask, and a hooked bill. Shrikes fly low across the landscape (often below shrub level) with very fast, stiff wing beats.

Taxonomy: Passeriformes, Laniidae.

Favored Habitat: Desert scrub.

Where to Find: Shrikes are never common around Las Vegas, but look for them in desert scrub; Red Rock Canyon NCA and the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve are good places to check.

Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)

Comments: Loggerhead Shrikes are also called "butcher birds" from their habit of catching everything they can find (mostly lizards, beetles, and mice), and when they are too full to eat more, they save the rest for later. They hang the extra prey items from a cactus spine or tree thorn in their "larder," where it dries out and doesn't rot before the shrike can come back to eat. If you see a lizard or grasshopper hanging from a yucca spine, you know that a shrike has been at work.

Loggerhead shrikes are declining in some parts of their range, and they are considered to be sensitive species in some areas, including Clark County.

Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) If you were a tasty grasshopper or a little lizard, this might be the last face you'd ever see!
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike; dark form in Dunedin, Florida
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike juvenile
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Shrike found dead inside a hollow-pipe mining claim marker
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike on Mojave Yucca
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike with a tasty beetle
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Loggerhead Shrike on a Barrel Cactus
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Shrike larder: a shrike saves a grasshopper for later
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus)
Shrike larder: a shrike saves a lizard tail for later

Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate.
copyright; Last updated 240221

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