Subject: Shrike using feet to carry prey
Date: Mar 20 20:15:40 1995
From: SCRAY at delphi.com - SCRAY at delphi.com


Tweeters,

Has anyone observed the following behavior in shrikes or have I just missed
this one until today?

Along I-82 just north of the Yakima Firing Center this afternoon I noted a
small passerine fluttering slowly forward, several feet above the ground. The
bird was headed directly toward me at first and its flight behavior gave the
impression of a Meadowlark preparing to land with the characteristic slow
fluttering flight. But as I got closer, it became obvious that this was not a
Meadowlark but a Northern Shrike laboring to carry a small mammel in its
*talons* (shrikes have no talons). Its laboring flight must have resulted from
carrying such too heavy a mouse(?).

Please correct me, but isn't this behavior unusual for a shrike, carrying prey
with its feet? In my beginning college ornithology classes, shrike behavior
was described as 'raptorial' in nature in that they possess some of the
behavior of raptors and are able to tear flesh with their beaks, but i
t was
then also noted that they never use their feet as raptors do and of course are
not raptors.

I wonder if the feet were used because to carry the prey in its beak, in the
normal fashion, would have caused a fatal imbalance in the flying ability of
this small bird. By using its feet, its center of gravity would be less
disturbed by a heavy load.

Has anyone else observed shrikes to carry prey with the feet?

Scott Ray
scray at delphi.com