The loggerhead shrike eats meat. One of the bird’s favorite foods is house sparrows. In the summer the shrike eats grasshoppers, beetles, large insects, and small birds. In the winter and fall, the shrike eats more mice than small birds. To get its food, the shrike swoops down and chases its prey until the prey is tired. The shrike attacks its prey with its bill stunning it or breaking its spine. Then the shrike sticks its prey on a wire or thorn. When the prey is on the wire or thorn, the shrike tears off small parts of meat with its bill. The shrike has a strongly hooked bill for grabbing flesh, and a strong “tooth” near the bill tip that helps break the spinal cord of its prey. Shrikes digest their food using their crops and soft, non-muscular gizzards. In their gizzards, the fur, bones, and insect parts they can not digest form into a pellet which they then spit up.

This is a drawing of a loggerhead shrike sitting on a fence pole.	This is a photograph of a loggerhead shrike's beak.