ML149953941

Age

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Sex

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Observation details

While birding on West Ridge in Tolay RP on opening day, Craig Roth announced what appeared to be a shrike in a blackberry bramble east of the trail. I looked, said it looked like a mockingbird based on gizz, posture and shade of coloration. Upon further examination I saw the oddly limited black in the wing and agreed it was a shrike, then it hopped up onto a better perch. It was relatively relaxed in it's motions which, added to initial impressions, got me to consider that it might be a Northern rather than the much more expected Loggerhead, and I started taking photos. The 2 photos submitted were taken with a point-and-shoot Cannon SX65 at the closest approach conditions would allow. The right facing photo shows greater detail of a pale shrike with vertical posture at about a 45 degree angle from the camera. When blown up, the photo shows that the bill is rather long considering the angle, which would reduce the perceived length by 30%, and with a pronounced hook on the tip of the upper mandible. The head is proportionately small, rather flat and a very pale shade of gray on top. Above the bill the forehead is white, as is typical for Northern and something I've never seen on a Loggerhead (an absolute determination of the Northern Shrike depends on the absence of black over the base of the bill." Ralph Hoffman, 1927). The mask is quite thin, especially in front of the eye, paler then jet black, and the top edge of it is too low to cover and envelop the eye, in fact 1/3 of the eye is above the edge of the mask at the rear. Indeed it appears to be peeking above the mask in true Northern fashion; Loggerheads dress for crime with black eyes well hidden in complete, high black masks. The chest barring that is often noted on fall Northerns and juvenile Loggerheads is not in evidence, as would be expected for Northern at this date. Those vermiculations wear off by the end of winter. Coloration of the base of the mandible doesn't show well in these photos and is similarly useless as a distinguishing characteristic by this point in the annual cycle. The tail appears longish and is held low, good for Northern. The left-facing photo is of even poorer quality, but well illustrates the very pale shade of gray of the dorsal surface of the bird, very good for Northern and unlike Loggerhead. The head looks especially puny in this shot too, and a thin strip of white/gray separates the mask from the bill at the forehead. The black in the wings seems quite limited, as it appeared to me in the field, and the tail is unusually pale. The wings are held rather high in this view, offering a good look of the white rump, which is various shades of gray in California Loggerheads. My AviSys data set shows I have 6 prior records for Northern Shrike, mostly in northeastern California and Massachusetts. I distinctly recall from each of those experiences noting in the field the relaxed demeanor of the species as compared to Loggerheads. I've seen another 8 species of shrikes in the Old World, most of which fall midway between these two species in this aspect. I have 314 prior records for Loggerhead, the majority in California.

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