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This here is a Loggerhead Shrike, which is a common bird here in San Antonio and surrounding areas, sorta surprising as its gotten scarce in many other states.



Wet years we've had as many as three pairs nesting on our urban school campus but recent years its been so dry we only have a single pair each spring.

Predatory as all get out for their size, mostly they take whats easiest, which generally translate to crickets and grasshoppers but I have seen one carrying a dead male Northern Cardinal fully as large as itself by the nape of the neck.

Seen 'em catch hummingbirds twice, and in certain areas the barbed wire fences of Lackland AFB are festooned with freetail-bat carcasses.

Around here they feed their fledglings mostly on house sparrows just out of the nest, and the young shrikes will gather around and literally rip the dead sparrow apart limb from bloody limb like a pack of velociraptors.

Here's the tattered remains of one such kill....



Birdwatcher