#northern shrike

[aevris]

shike

[highways-are-liminal-spaces]

Golden hour on a frosty morning in Sax Zim, Minnesota

Taken February 2024

[tilbugs]

lifer 222: northern shrike!

this one expelled a pellet for us

jan 3, 2024

nebraska

[wingedarrows]

trick or treat!!

Places in your hands the Northern Shrike, Lanius borealis

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Shrikes are of the few carnivorous songbirds, and they often store their food by impaling it on thorns or branches.

Their nests are so deep that often when the female sits in it, only her tail can be seen.

Their songs can include imitations of other species in the area.

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

[lord-ofthe-frogs]

there is something about shrikes. hehe. girl yessss! impale that creature on a tiny spike! you look so small and harmless and your actions are terrifying! woooo!!!! Kill so horribly with the body of just some songbird!! show them how gruesomely you can murder!!!!!

[emerald-soul]

“Remember me, love

When I’m reborn

As the shrike to your sharp

And glorious thorn.”

A piece inspired by Hozier’s “Shrike”. Please do not delete caption or re-post. Thank you <3

Art (c) emerald-soul

[starsbits]

reupload cuz i noticed a mistake but i finally finished this piece :] hoping that my professor won't look too closely at the wings LOL cuz i tried to make them as accurate as possible but it was difficult (its not an art class anyways, he's just a huge bird guy)

[Image ID: A digital illustration of a Northern Shrike stabbing a mouse through a thorn, with thrasher flaming text in the background that reads "Northern Shrike" in all caps. There are flames flowing backwards from the bird's eyes, and its mouth is open. The belly of the bird is facing the viewer, with it's wings spread around it as it holds the limp mouse with its left foot. The whole drawing is outlined in bright red. End Image ID]

[lunarfeat21]

Since I made an update on the dolls, you can have another update of Screamer and his harpy form

One down, two more to go (accompanied by more to come)

[21go-gay-today37]

Do ya'll like dogs? I have a dog I love her a lot she is so silly 🌌

[sunnydayaoe]

Meet Messengerverse!Error!! He's kinda goofy :) -He doesn't really have a name, but he will answer to anything he can even Vaguely associate with himself. He most readily answers to Shrike, or The Butcher Bird though.

-He hates touching the ground, outright refusing to if he has the chance. [He's even crashed from unplanned landings before, he got up & flew away soon after though, similar to a stunned bird :)]

-He loves Outertale still, but not for all the same reasons. He still thinks it's one of the most peaceful AUs, but he also enjoys how little it feels like standing on the ground. Sitting around the flouting meteors of Outertale, it hardly feels like he's on the ground at all.

-He doesn't actually fly using his wings, but instead a type of magic that his wings help with. He still looks a bit goofy in the air though.

-His coat is big and would drag across the floor if he actually stood on it, he thinks it's fine though, because he doesn't plan on getting close enough for it to be a problem.

-His eyes are worse than even canon Error's, he can barely see three feet in front of his face, and he constantly has to wear his glasses. If he lost them well. . . Goofy stuff can happen haha.

-His wings are based on both Northern Jacana and Shrike, though more Northern Jacana, both for color and the spurs. These birds actually have spires!! It's fun :)

[great-and-small]

got a favorite bird?

So hard to answer! For the most part it genuinely changes continuously to the point where whatever bird I saw today is my favorite. But I have a few special birds for sure, like any birder. To keep it narrowed down just a little I’m keeping it to birds I’ve seen in person (still waiting to spot my crested caracara). Here are a few category nominations for birds that are particularly meaningful to me!

Bird of prey:

American kestrel, red-tailed hawk, and Swallow-tailed kite

Wading bird:

Roseate spoonbill

Passerine:

Loggerhead shrike, Florida scrub jay

Diving bird:

Nazca booby, Northern gannet (haven’t photographed one yet, photo by Owen Deutsch)

Crane:

Sandhill crane ❤️

These are some of my great loves but truly there are so many more! I could keep going and make this so long honestly. There are too many awesome birds on this Earth!

[libraryofmoths]

Moth of the Week

Ornate Bella Moth

Utetheisa ornatrix

This moth was first described as Phalaena ornatrix and Phalaena bella by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. In 1960, it became known as the Utetheisa ornatrix by William Trowbridge Merrifield Forbes. It’s also called the ornate bella moth, ornate moth, bella moth or rattlebox moth and is in the family Erebidae.

Description The body is white with black spots on the back of the thorax and head. The legs are black and white and antennae are black and filiform. The hindwings are a pale or bright pink with an irregular black border. The forewings are orangish-yellow with white bands surrounding black dots. Patterns may vary. These colors are used to warn predators of the moth’s toxicity.

Wingspan range: 33 - 46 mm (1.3 - 1.8 in)

Diet and Habitat The larva feed on plants of the Crotalaria species such as Avon Park rattlebox, rabbitbells, smooth rattlebox, and showy rattlebox. These plants provide the larva and adults with alkaloid compounds which are the unpalatable to predators. They accumulate these toxins from the seed pods of these plants, however if the larva can’t eat a seed pod due to competition they will have to eat the leaves where is concentration is much lower. Larvae may prey on/eat others of its kind to maintain high levels of alkaloids. Alkaloids are also passed down from parents to eggs.

Its northern most range is from Connecticut westward to southeastern Nebraska and southward to southern New Mexico and Florida in the United States. Its southern most range is from Mexico, South America, and Central America. It’s southernmost reach is southeastern Brazil. This species is more common in tropical parts of this range due to host plant populations.

Mating This species demonstrates a form of sexual selection. The females choose a male to mate with based on the intensity of their pheromones. During mating, the females receive a “spermatophore” from the males containing sperm, nutrients, and alkaloid compounds. After mating, the females choose which males’ sperm fertilizes the eggs. Usually, the female chooses the male with the most alkaloids which tends to be the larger males. Adult males invest up to 11% of their body mass to create a spermatophore they provide to a female during mating. The nutrients given in the spermatophore allow the female to produce an average of 32 additional eggs in her brood.

Females mate an average of 4-5 times and up to 13 times, each with a different male. In the north there there two generations per year with more in the south.

Predators The larva and adults keep predators at bay with alkaloid compounds accumulated during feeding and inherited from parents. These toxins make them unpalatable to their main predators: spiders and bats. Specifically, the adult moth secretes an alkaloid foam from its head when threatened. However, larva and moths with low concentrations are more susceptible to predation than those with higher concentrations who are usually released and unharmed after being caught.

These toxins do not work against some predators like loggerhead shrikes.

Unlike other moths of the Arctiidae subfamily, this species moth does not have a way to audibly communicate their toxic which would help it to avoid bats altogether.

Fun Fact This species was first described on 1758 by Carl Linnaeus as two different species: Phalaena ornatrix was used to describe the paler moth specimens, and Phalanea bella, described the bright pink moth specimens. It was then moved to the genus Utetheisa in 1819 by Hübner. After nearly a century of struggling to identify this species and its subspecies, Forbes combined both species Utetheisa ornatrix and Utetheisa bella into one in 1960: Utetheisa ornatrix.

(Source: Wikipedia; The Island Packet; Institution of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida)

[whatsthebird]

What's the Bird?

Location: Tampa Bay, Florida

Date: January

We ask that discussion under questions be limited to how you came to your conclusion, not what your conclusion was.

Happy Birding!

Keep the game alive! Submit a bird HERE

Bird-90 graciously submitted by @satellite-juice

[mutant-distraction]

Charlotte Allen

Northern Shrike

Lummi flats, Whatcom County, Washington

[magnetothemagnificent]

I guess it's time I share my list of birds from this past Jewish year (I've been keeping two Big Year lists, Jewish year and secular year). All are from the US, except the last few which are indicated.

1. Ruby-crowned kinglet

2. American Robin

* Leucistic American Robin

3. Song sparrow

4. Rock pigeon

* Melanistic rock pigeon

5. Chipping sparrow

6. Hairy woodpecker

7. Mourning dove

8. Northern flicker

9. Eastern towhee

10. White crowned sparrow

11. White-throated sparrow

12 Savannah sparrow

13. House sparrow

14. European starling

15. American Crow

16. Common Raven

17. Gray catbird

18. Northern mockingbird

19. Canada Goose

20. Spotted Sandpiper

21. American herring gull

22. Marsh wren

23. Limpkin

24. Great white heron

25. Cattle egret

26. Anhinga

27. Snowy egret

28. Great blue heron

29. Black-crowned night heron

30. Wood stork

31. Common gallinule

32. Blue-gray gnatcatcher

33. Turkey vulture

34. Black vulture

35. Yellow rumped warbler

36. Tufted titmouse

37. Little blue heron

38. White ibis

39. Cooper's hawk

40. Cardinal

41. Green heron

42. Carolina wren

43. Palm warbler

44. Pine warbler

45. Sandhill crane

46. Carolina chickadee

47. Bluejay

48. Osprey

49. Chimney swift

50. Red-tailed hawk

51. Prairie warbler

52. American kestrel

53. Glossy ibis

54. Pied-billed grebe

55. Double-crested cormorant

56. Grey kingbird

57. Brown pelican

58. Fish crow

59. Royal tern

60. Bald eagle

61. Painted bunting

62. American white pelican

63. Common grackle

64. Boat-tailed grackle

65. Great-tailed grackle

66. American purple gallinule

67. American coot

68. Brown-headed cowbird

69. Tricolored heron

70. Mallard

71. Black-bellied whistling duck

72. Eastern kingbird

73. Yellow-billed cuckoo

74. Muscovy duck

75. American bittern

76. Ring-billed gull

77. American Pekin

78. Mallard-Pekin hybrid

79. Eastern bluebird

80. Yellow-bellied sapsucker

81. Red-winged blackbird

82. White-eyed vireo

83. Mottled duck

84. Broad-winged hawk

85. Dark-eyed junco

86. Brown thrasher

87. Sharp-shinned hawk

88. House finch

89. Eastern Phoebe

90. Downy woodpecker

91. Fox sparrow

92. Loggerhead Shrike!!!!

93. White breasted nuthatch

94. Red-bellied woodpecker

95. Brown creeper

96. Pileated woodpecker

97. American goldfinch

98. House wren

99. Barn swallow

100. Tree swallow

101. Black and white warbler

102. Red eyed vireo

103. Yellow warbler

104. Mute swan

105. Rusty blackbird

106. Common yellowthroat

107. Warbling vireo

108. Northern waterthrush

109. Veery

110. Swamp sparrow

111. Wood duck

112. American redstart

113. Orchard oriole

114. Greater Yellowlegs

115. Lesser Yellowlegs

116. Baltimore oriole

117. Hermit thrush

118. Wood thrush

119. Ovenbird

120. Indigo bunting

121. Black-throated blue warbler

122. Scarlet tanager

123. Worm-eating warbler

124. Northern rough-winged swallow

125. Blue-headed vireo

126. Northern parula

127. Prothonotary warbler

128. Philadelphia vireo

129. Blackburnian warbler

130. Magnolia warbler

131. Cedar waxwing

132. Blackpoll warbler

133. Yellow-throated vireo

134. Eastern wood pewee

135. Acadian flycatcher

136. Tennessee warbler

137. Caspian tern

138. Laughing gull

139. Forster's tern

140. American oystercatcher

141. Green-winged teal

142. Purple Martin

143. Least tern

144. Field sparrow

145. Killdeer

146. Grey-cheeked thrush

147. Rose-breasted grosbeak

148. Great-crested flycatcher

149. Swainson's thrush

150. Bay-breasted warbler

151. Chestnut-sided warbler

152. Willow flycatcher

153. Ruby-throated hummingbird

154. Peregrine falcon

155. Hooded crow IL

156. Laughing dove IL

157. Eurasian collared dove IL

158. Eurasian jackdaw IL

159. Common myna IL

160. Rose-ringed parakeet IL

161. White spectacled bulbul IL

162. European bee eater IL

163. Chukar IL

164. Short toed snake eagle IL

165. White stork IL

166. Little egret IL

167. Pygmy cormorant IL

168. Eurasian hoopoe IL

169. Alpine swift IL

170. Graceful pinia IL

171. Eastern Olivaceous Warbler IL

172. Tristan's Starling IL

173. Fan tailed raven IL

174. Eurasian black cap IL

Here's to at least 200 next year!