NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It’s mid-afternoon in the countryside of northern Robertson County, Friday. Nashville Zoo Bird Curator Joe de Graauw is on the hunt and so is the bird for which he's searching.
"As much as there's an interest in [loggerhead] shrikes there's not a lot known about them so this is why, in our minds this is an important project," de Graauw explained.
For the past two years, de Graauw and a team of researchers have studied and tracked loggerhead shrikes, a small songbird with a raptor apatite.
"A shrike will catch, kill and consume anything just smaller than it," said de Graauw.
There's a telltale sign if you have shrikes on your land, shrikes will spear their prey on barbed wire fences or long thorns -- hence giving them the nickname, "the butcher bird".
"This particular fence row has, I've seen everything from snakes, birds, small mammals, of course lots of insects," de Graauw said.
Their carnivorous diet helps local farmers with rodent and insect problems, but over the years their numbers have drastically dropped.
"Loggerhead shrike populations have dropped almost 60 percent," said de Graauw.
He said habitat loss due to urban sprawl and loss of prey to pesticides may be to blame; it's now his job to track the ones they find.
"We're also putting telemetry equipment on them so we can track them throughout the summer months," he said.
However finding them can be hard enough but luck was on our side Friday.
"I was a little hesitant that we were going to see shrikes today with you guys coming out but kaboom we've got two in our bag right now," de Graauw said.
De Graauw said rural homeowners can help aid the shrikes' habitat by allowing growth along fence lines, especially ones with barbed wire. The loggerhead shrikes are currently listed as "in need of management" in several southern states.
If you believe you may have shrikes on your land, the Nashville Zoo would love to hear from you. You can reach them at http://www.nashvillezoo.org/birds.
