Shrikes are well-known for impaling their prey on sharp projections like thorns or barbed wire as a means of food storage – they’re called “butcher birds” for good reason. I suspect the behavior to do so is innate but to become skilled at it takes practice.

This past summer I found this Loggerhead Shrike on a fence on the Montana farm where I grew up. It had already captured the grasshopper when I arrived on the scene.

First, my standard disclaimer for behavioral sequences. This bird was strongly sidelit so I seldom got a catch light and the light was harsh. To compensate, I did more processing with these images than I normally do because my intent is to show the behavior as well as possible, even though image quality suffered from the processing.

Almost immediately I could see that the shrike was going to attempt to impale the grasshopper on the barb just below and in front of the beak of the bird.

Impaling prey apparently isn’t an easy task.

From all the contortions the bird went through…

I’d assume that part of the problem was the awkward angle the shrike was at…

to get proper leverage to complete the task.

At one point the bird nearly fell off the fence.

After a few moments the shrike gave up, turned its back on me with the grasshopper between its legs (and a gob of grasshopper on its bill) and seemed to contemplate what to do next.

The decision has been made. I’ll just eat the darned thing.

Which it did, with gusto.

But then it found dessert laying on the fence behind the square post – a leftover leg…

which it also tried to impale on the same barb as before. It didn’t work, of course. I can’t remember if the bird swallowed or dropped the leg.

When it was all over the shrike gave a little hop and then took off.

I’ve seen (and documented here) this behavior before – where the shrike impales (or attempts to impale) the prey and then immediately eats it afterward. I suspect it’s a form of practice. Impaling prey is a complex behavior and an inexact science so learning to do it well likely wouldn’t be easy.

Ron