INDIANAPOLIS – Loggerhead shrikes, also known as “butcherbirds,” were once a common songbird in Indiana. Graduate student Ken Burton found 100 nesting pairs in the late 1980s. In 2014, only 10 pairs remained.

The drop in numbers is likely caused by habitat loss due to changes in land use, said Allisyn-Marie Gillet, state ornithologist for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). Much of the grassland habitat in their historical range has been developed or converted to large-scale agriculture. Beginning in 2020, the Shrubs for Shrikes program has aimed to turn that number around.

Many farmers had already allowed the researchers to come on their farms and look for shrikes for an annual survey and many agreed to participate in the program. That meant they would permit landscapers to plant at least four Eastern red cedars on their property and they would agree to maintain them for at least 10 years.

Farmers received a stipend for their participation. Funds come from the Indiana Audubon (not a chapter of the National Audubon Society), the IDNR Division of Fish and Wildlife, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which have teamed up to help provide shrubs for shrikes through the Adopt a Shrike Program.

“We typically find shrikes on heritage farms with pasture/livestock in Orange, Lawrence and Spencer counties,” Gillet said. “The shrikes benefit from the wide variety of habitats that these farms make for wildlife and help farmers by eating a lot of insects and small animals that are farm pests.”

Loran Wilson, of Orleans, Ind., is one of 18 farmers participating in the program. His farm is ideal. The family has brood cows and a feedlot that can finish 300 head of cattle. Shrikes do well in pastureland. In the mid-1980s the family saw shrikes on the property, then they disappeared for a while. Now they are seeing them again.

“They like a pasture that is 6- to 8-inches tall,” Wilson said. “They love to catch bugs. In the mid-1980s we had shrikes at the home farm. They would catch little garter snakes, and they’d hang them on the barbed wire fence, stab them on the barbs. Or they will eat a field mouse and take the skull and impale it on a barb on a barbed wire fence. At first, I wondered who in the world was doing that! It was the shrikes. People nickname them “the butcherbird” because of that.

“They want a fence, where they can perch and stick their little trophies on barbed wire,” Wilson said. “They like a high line like a power line where they can sit up and watch down below, and a big shrub. We had three different corners of the field where it wouldn’t be in the way or bother anything and I let them put the cedar trees into the corner and put a little fence panel across it to where the cattle won’t rub on it. We’ve had two different pairs of shrikes and one single that they identified last year.”

Also, the shrikes are using the shrubs for escape cover, said Amy Kearns, assistant ornithologist for the IDNR. The sooner the young can leave the nest the better off they are. The smells created by the nest can attract predators such as possums or raccoons.

The birds need to follow their parents around the farm to get fed. That gives parents more area that they can hunt. But the young are not yet strong flyers.

“When they go around these farms and there is a cedar for the young to hide in if a Cooper hawk flies by then the parents are calling to let the young know there is danger, then the young can hide in that cedar,” Kearns said. “That gives them a safe place to hide from predators while maximizing the food that the parents can capture on that farm.”

The Eastern cedars were 8 feet tall when the landscapers planted them, ensuring that they would be useful to the birds immediately.

“We saw them using them right away,” Kearns said. “It has been very successful. We did have to put in the work at the beginning, coordinating with the landowners, planting the bushes, watering the bushes, and putting in the fence to protect them from livestock, but it has paid off. They are all doing well and providing habitat not just for shrikes but for many other native species as well.”

For information, type “Adopt a Shrike” in your search bar.