Singing shrike

[Leon Bright]

COBirders—Last week I posted two photos by Jim Thompson of La Junta showing a Loggerhead Shrike singing while raising one foot in the air.  Joe Roller suggested that I report answers to the question “Is this a known behavior for this species?”   Of the five responses to my post, no one offered any answer, just various forms of astonishment.  That’s okay, astonishment is fine in this case.  An image of a shrike singing is noteworthy in itself.

Leon Bright

Pueblo

[Eric Lutomski]

I used to work at San Diego Zoo's San Clemente Island Loggerhead Shrike captive breeding center and in the late winter early spring the male shrikes are singing almost constantly. They have a huge vocabulary and a wide variety of songs and calls. It's easy to forget that these predatory birds are passerines after all.

Eric Lutomski
Denver CO and Dallas TX