We recently finished our fall trapping here at the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch, and throughout the trapping process we caught a lot more than just quail. In one particular trap, I caught a white-crowned sparrow that had the misfortune of sharing the trap with a loggerhead shrike. Loggerhead shrikes are sometimes referred to as butcher birds, and you can see why, as the shrike beheaded this sparrow and impaled its head upon the funnel of the trap. Shrikes are carnivorous, and this one had probably entered the trap to get after the sparrow. Its interesting to note that I also had a shrike in a trap with some quail, and the quail were left totally unharmed, with the likely reason being that the shrike was just too small to do any damage to the quail. When I pulled the shrike out of the trap, it viciously bit my hand, and I got the feeling that it would very much like to behead me too if it could. (posted by Aaron Rives)
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 03:36:56 +0000
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