Photo: A color-banded Loggerhead Shrike in Orange County, Indiana, carrying food in its bill. Courtesy of Ryan Sanderson.
BY BRAD BUMGARDNER
Loggerhead Shrikes once nested widely across Indiana. By the late 1980s, only about 100 pairs remained, and by the 2000s the annual statewide count often dipped into single digits. Indiana DNR biologists began color-banding and surveying, then worked with Indiana Audubon to test a straightforward fix: plant nesting shrubs, protect fencerows, and give shrikes places to hunt and hide.
Indiana Audubon and the Indiana DNR launched the Adopt a Shrike program in 2019 to raise awareness and fund shrub plantings. Donors could “adopt” a shrike and receive updates about banding and conservation work. By 2020, the first shrubs were going in the ground throughout prime shrike nesting habitat.
Shrikes thrive on grazed pasture with barbed-wire perches and isolated nest bushes. Many reuse the same shrub each year, so one missing bush can erase a territory. Planting tall Eastern Red Cedars restores that anchor and turns marginal pasture into usable habitat. Landowners receive a modest stipend to protect the trees from livestock, and the DNR team bands and monitors birds each year. Funding blends state and federal habitat dollars with Adopt a Shrike gifts.
Since its launch, Adopt a Shrike has seen more than 225 shrike adoptions by supporters and over 70 cedars planted with cooperating landowners across at least 18 farms. The effort is paying off, with multiple nesting records in planted cedars, including one shrub that fledged three young in 2022. With recent statewide monitoring finding only three to eight nesting territories each year, every successful site carries significant weight for the species’ future in Indiana.
In recognition of the program’s success, Indiana Audubon received the Indiana DNR Director’s Team of the Year Award in 2021. This award underscored both the conservation impact for Loggerhead Shrikes and the value of partnerships that extend IAS’s reach beyond traditional birding programs.
Indiana’s remaining Loggerhead Shrikes nest almost entirely on private farms. A few planted cedars can stabilize a territory and keep young birds in the landscape. You can directly support this work by adopting a shrike through Indiana Audubon. When you adopt, you’ll receive an official adoption certificate, a commemorative water bottle, and an annual update on how the program is helping conserve this State Endangered species. Adoptions provide critical funding for habitat restoration and monitoring efforts that keep shrikes on the landscape. Learn more or adopt today at indianaaudubon.org/adopt-a-shrike.
Photo Above: A Loggerhead Shrike keeps watch from a fencepost in southern Indiana. This digi-scoped shot, taken through a spotting scope by Amy Kearns this summer, highlights the bird’s masked profile against a summer-green backdrop.
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