Sask. organization looks to help conserve 'butcher bird' population

A Saskatchewan organization is working towards protecting the population of loggerhead shrike in the province.

Ashley Fortney, habitat stewardship co-ordinator with Nature Saskatchewan, said many factors are involved in the decrease in numbers — thing such as the use of pesticides, people removing shelter belts or even the conversion of grasslands to crop fields.

Fortney said over the previous 35 years, the population of the loggerhead shrike has suffered significant decline of over 80 per cent.

The bird was even designated as a threatened species in 2003.

Committed predator

Loggerhead shrikes may look like innocent little song birds with distinct black and white colouring, but the tiny bird is a committed predator.

It's this behaviour of hanging their meat that has afforded them that name of butcher bird.- Ashley Fortney, Nature Saskatchewan

"They have this hooked beak like maybe a hawk would have but they don't have the strong talons like hawks do — they have these little song bird legs," explained Fortney. 

"So although they'll often eat small prey like grasshoppers and beetles, they'll take surprisingly large prey items like frogs, snakes, even mice and voles."

She said because the bird doesn't have strong talons, they impale their prey by fixing it to something in order to tear off chunks to eat. 

"What they do is they hang prey on things like thorns, broken sticks and even barbed wire fences," she added. "And it's this behaviour of hanging their meat that has afforded them that name of 'butcher bird.'"

According to Fortney, the loggerhead shrikes can be found across the prairie ecoregion, south of the North Saskatchewan River.

Nature Saskatchewan is asking the public to report any sightings of loggerhead shrikes to the organization in an attempt to help conserve the bird's habitat. ​