Watch: New Shrike Film Shows Previously Undocumented ’Butcher Bird’ Behaviors
Larry McPherson didn’t plan on falling in love with shrikes when he headed to Arkansas’ three years ago. After retiring from 30 years of teaching photography at the University of Memphis, McPherson was excited to test out hisnew filming equipment—all 65 pounds of it—while capturing some bird calls. He hadalways been fascinated with bird vocalizations, and that day he hoped to capture some Painted Buntings orother birdssinging. But then he saw the pair of Loggerhead Shrikes courting each other in ahawthorn tree. “The shrikes were perfect,” McPherson says. “They’re so unique and rather fearless."
Three years later, after hundreds ofhours filming, editing, and consultingwithexperts, McPherson has his masterpiece,The Loggerhead Shrike. The film, which clocks in at an engrossing22minutes, originallyaired November 2016 on theMemphis PBS affiliate WKNO, and more recently, McPherson, who lives in Arlington, Tennessee, screened it for the in Mississippi. Now he's made hisself-funded passion project available for thepublic to enjoyon Vimeo.
The documentarycaptures everything from the birdscourting[05:29, 09:28] tofledging young [18:00],with plenty of zoomed-in, up-close shots that giveviewers an intimate lookinto the world of shrikes. And yes, that includes theirvoracious and vicious eating behaviorssuch asimpaling rodents onto tree thorns[03:40] andripping off beetle wings foreasierswallowing [01:40].
McPherson even documentednever-before-seen behaviors: In one scene, ashrikecaptures a grasshopper, but before eating it, the birduses its sharp, hookedbeak to rip out the digestive tract, avoiding the foul-tasting chemical hidden within[02:40]. The scene was so impressive that McPherson co-wrote a paper about it for with Loggerhead Shrike expert of Ben-Gurian University in Israel,who was also consulted on the film. Researchers are now investigating the chemical’s toxicity.
from on .
Another revealingmoment shows young shrikes practicing theirimpaling, also an unknownbehavior to experts. While adults will impale prey on thorns for eating, babyshrikes apparentlypractice their coordination withsmall leaves onbranches and twigs [16:33].
Just as important as actual the footage to McPherson is the trove of valuableinformation provided bythenarration throughout.In another scene,when McPherson can tell he's gotten too close to the birds by their calls, the narratoreven acknowledgesthe mistake in full transparency. But for the rest of the film, McPherson'shigh-powered equipment allowed him tocapture trulyincrediblefootage andavoid interfering in the birds' lives. “Without a camera with that powerful reach, you’re not going to see anything at all,” McPhersonsays. “I was privy. I was allowed in the private life, only because I had this powerful equipment.”
For the two years of filming, McPhersontraveled an hour and a half each way to see theshrikes, sometimes recordingfor a week straight during breeding season. Afterward, hetook a year discussing shrike behavior with a long list of experts, including Yosef and the Peregrine Fund’s, as he slowly editeddown roughly150 hours of video into the final22 minutes.
Although he managed to document newbehaviors, McPhersonsays hisfavorite aspects of the film harken back to the original reasonhe headed to Wappanocca National Wildlife Refugein thefirst place:birdsong. The changes in the Loggerhead Shrikes vocalizations captivated McPherson, from the varied, quick calls when the male is looking for a mate [04:40] to his more peaceful singing [14:45] around the brood. “I got a high learning the different flavors," he says.
***
This documentarywasself-funded by Larry McPherson, who hasmade the filmavailable to the public for free.If you would like to show your support for this project and McPherson's work, you can