The Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) is a medium-sized gray songbird found across much of North America, including Mexico, where it inhabits open landscapes with scattered shrubs and patches of grasses and forbs—such as grasslands, scrublands, deserts, steppes, prairies, and savannas. The species is well known for its distinctive hunting behavior: impaling prey on sharp objects like thorns, barbed wire, cacti, and yucca leaves, or wedging items between forked branches. After impaling an item, the shrike often departs, using these “larders” as food caches and possibly as territorial or courtship displays. Its prey consists of a wide range of invertebrates (e.g., grasshoppers, crickets, beetles) and vertebrates (e.g., rodents, birds, amphibians, and reptiles). Over the past 30 years, the hunting and impalement of reptiles and amphibians by Loggerhead Shrikes has become a particular focus of study. Here, I present a photographic record of some of the reptile and amphibian species I have observed being taken as prey by Loggerhead Shrikes in the field.  

Howard O. Clark, Jr., is a Certified Wildlife Biologist with 30 y of professional wildlife and research experience. He earned his Master’s degree in Biology from California State University, Fresno, in 2001. His work as a researcher focused on the fauna and ecosystems of Northern, Central, and Southern California, and the Mojave Desert provinces and included extensive baseline mammalian inventories, surveys focused on rare animals, habitat assessment, radio telemetry, and long-term ecological studies on several endangered species. He regularly works with the Western Burrowing Owl, San Joaquin Kit Fox, Giant Kangaroo Rat, and the Mohave Ground Squirrel. He is currently a Senior Technical Specialist with Colibri Ecological Consulting, LLC, Fresno, California.