Shrike!

A northern cold front brought a nice collection of winter migrants today, and Ed and I banded 86 new birds at Petit Manan Point – very solid. We were pretty stoked about catching our first tree sparrow of the fall until Ed came running back from a net run with a Northern Shrike, definitely the most awesomest bird of the entire season so far!

Shrikes have murderous hooked bills designed for tearing apart other, smaller birds. This one tore us up, too, as we took its measurements, but the bloodshed was worth it…