Northern Shrike
(Lanius borealis)

Overview

Summary

© Jukka Jantunen (flickr.com/photos/jukka_jantunen)
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

The widespread but sparse population of Northern Shrike is distributed throughout Canada's taiga and tundra habitats. Most birds migrate to southern Canada and the United States for the winter, but some birds stay year-round on the breeding grounds. Results from the Christmas Bird Count, which monitors the species on its wintering ground, suggest an almost 30% decrease in the population since the early 1970s. This species has been identified as a priority for conservation and/or stewardship in one or more Bird Conservation Region Strategies in Canada.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation

Conservation and management

Populations of this species are influenced by severe weather and food supply on the breeding grounds (Paruk et al. 2017). Anthropogenic changes to habitats in the wintering range of the species may have negatively affected the species in some areas (Paruk et al. 2017). Climate warming is expected to influence distribution by expanding the treeline northward (Paruk et al. 2017). Some birds may remain farther north in winter due to an increase of bird feeders and prey availability at the feeders (Paruk et al. 2017).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Paruk, J.D., T.J. Cade, E.C. Atkinson, P. Pyle, and M.A. Patten. 2017. Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor), version 3.0. In: The Birds of North America (P.G. Rodewald, ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA. Paruk, J.D., T.J. Cade, E.C. Atkinson, P. Pyle, and M.A. Patten. 2017. Northern Shrike (Lanius excubitor), version 3.0. In: The Birds of North America (P.G. Rodewald, ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA. (Link)