Terrifyingly Cute
So, editing a section for the natural history of the wildlife of the Mojave Desert, I keep running into the phrase, “Avian predators.” I think that sounds so cool! In relation to lizards, such as the zebra-tailed lizard, this phrase keeps coming up. I wonder what a red-tailed hawk or great horned owl would want to have to do with such a small meal? This is what I’m thinking when I read the phrase.
So I keep plugging along and see, in parenthesis, “Loggerhead Shrike.” It comes up often enough to where I should have a page and a picture of one on the site. So I do a little research. After a search or two, I find a photo. I’m in luck- I have one of these I got a shot of a year or so ago while exploring the Ruth Mine in Searles Valley.
I remember the shot and the bird because of the way the bird was sitting on a powerline wire, brave and oblivious to the hawk that was soaring above. I thought that either the little plump creature was either stupid or a prime canidate for a hawk luncheon, so I watched for awhile. After a bit the hawk just soared away. I’m sure the hawk had seen the shrike, as it rested in the line of sight between me and the hawk. I knew the hawk had seen me- They see everything. I was disappointed. I wanted to see the action, a hawk snatching lunch right out of the sky as the little-tiny bird flew from the wire. At the time, in passing I thought that maybe the taloned predator knew something I didn’t, like maybe the animal was too salty or something?
Anyhow, there was the photo of the cutest little bird. A stubby beak, little black mask on its little face, a gray body with gray, black and white wings, skinny, weak-looking legs, talonless feet. Kind of harmless looking overall. So I read up on this animal.
Apparently, the hawk knew quite a bit about these things. They are murderous little birds. They find prey, like a small lizard (Western gecko or side-blotched maybe), run it from bush to bush until the creature is exhausted, cripple it with their beak, and carry it back to the nest injured and battered. At the nest, they shred the still living reptile, killing and eating it throughly. Something like that has got to annoy a hawk to the point where maybe it’s better to just go away and find something to eat elsewhere.
The loggerhead is also known as the, “butcher bird”. They are quite good at bringing their prey to the nest alive. Brutal, cute and horrible, all at the same time. Wouldn’t know it just to look at them perching on a wire.
More about the Loggerhead Shrike