Northern shrike
Lanius excubitor
Identification Tips:
- Length: 8 inches
- Heavy, hooked bill with a pale base to lower mandible
- Black cheeks
- Pale gray head and back
- White underparts with faint gray barring
- Black wings with white wing patches
- Black tail with white outer tail feathers
- Juveniles and immatures are browner and duller
Similar species:
The Northern Shrike is very similar to the Loggerhead Shrike but is larger
with a black mask that does not extend across the top of the bill, pale base
to the lower mandible, a paler gray overall color and faintly barred
underparts. Immatures are browner than immature Loggerheads. Northern
Mockingbirds are similarly-sized and colored but have slimmer bills and
lack a black mask.
Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.