Northern Shrike

I saw my first Northern Shrike today.  I didn't get a good photo, but it was exciting anyway!  The Northern Shrike is an interesting bird.  It is a small gray, black and white bird which prefers open areas.  I saw mine at the Uxbridge Community Gardens.  It has a varied diet, including insects, lizards, mice, and birds.  It uses its hooked beak to kill them and then impales them on thorns (or out west on barbed wire) to hold them while it rips them apart.  Kind of sadistic, don't you think?  And yet, it's using tools to get the job done, so it's kind of cool, too.

Thanks to Alan M. of the Forbush Bird Club for correcting my ID on this bird, which I originally thought was a Loggerhead Shrike!!!

Click to enlarge.

Northern Shrike - a life bird!

Also seen:

Eastern Bluebird

Song Sparrow

Killdeer (FOY)

Note to self:  Put out new platform feeder in the yard today with mealworms for bluebirds.  Hope so, anyway!