 Breeding evidence |
 Relative abundance |
 Probability of observation |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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-4.69 (-5.9 - -3.62)|
Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
[%squares plot]
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Atlas Results
Loggerhead Shrike were predominantly observed in the Mixed and Moist Mixed Grassland ecoregions. Breeding was confirmed in 109 of 572 atlas squares with detections beginning as early as mid-May. Several areas of high probability of observation coincide with large tracts of sandhills with native cover, which are an attractive mix of short sand-adapted vegetation interspersed with trees and shrubs. These include the Burstall Sandhills, Cramersburg Sandhills, and Great Sandhills north of the Cypress Uplands ecoregion, as well as the Mixed Wood Sand Hills ecodistrict south of Saskatoon.
Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
During the summer breeding season, Loggerhead Shrikes rely on grasshoppers, large beetles and other insects, frogs, small birds, and rodents, which they catch after spying the unwary victim from a hunting perch. They wedge their prey in a forked branch or impale it on thorns or barbed wire. The Loggerhead Shrikes of the northern Great Basin, northern Great Plains, and Great Lakes area are migratory and join the permanent residents of the southern US and Mexico for the winter.
Loggerhead Shrikes employ patches of tall shrubs such as buffaloberry , chokecherry , and willow for nesting and perching sites throughout their natural grassland habitat, including the floodplains of large river valleys such as the Frenchman River, as well as sand plains and dune areas. This shrike has adapted to the conversion of grassland to farmland by using active and abandoned farmyards and shelterbelts.
"The Loggerhead Shrike has declined in both numbers and range throughout North America? (Smith 1996). In Saskatchewan it no longer breeds at its former northern limits: Meadow Lake, Nipawin, Somme. Although its distribution is patchy it remains a fairly common summer resident in our Grasslands and Parklands? (ibid.). Survival of Loggerhead Shrikes during their migration and wintering may be a population limiting factor. COSEWIC designated it as Threatened in 1986 (COSEWIC 2004).
Original text by Tina Portman. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Loggerhead Shrike in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Loggerhead Shrike in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=LOSH&lang=en [14 Nov 2025]
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