This afternoon at Afton State Park, Rob and I observed a shrike in the act of broadcasting its repertoire. Before I caught sight of it, it seemed I was hearing an off-key bluejay---not too surprising, since the Sibley Behavior Book mentions its DNA relationship to corvids. But then the sounds morphed into something rather like calls given by our backyard chickadees when they arrive at the feeders. Very quickly, there were chickadees seeming to respond to the shrike's sounds, by calling and approaching its territory. After a bit, the shrike dropped down out of sight into a thicket behind its perch. There was no telling if it was in a pursuit for sure, but we never did see or hear it again, nor did we find a cache.
Could the shrike be using mimicry to lure its prey, or to get other birds to reveal their position? Linda Whyte -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20080316/c2e6658f/attachment.html
