Last week, a first-year northern shrike came to the Fields Pond Audubon Center. It perched in the top of a small tree, looking around for a meal. Its prey is typically a mouse, a vole or a small bird. The shrike is colloquially called the “butcher bird” for its habit of impaling its prey on a thorn or barbed wire, or wedging it in the crotch of a small branch.

The shrike’s feet are the feet of a songbird, not the talons of a hawk. It can’t hold its prey down with its feet. So it impales its prey, or wedges it in, so it can rip it into pieces.

Shrikes have a “tomial tooth.” The tomium is the cutting edge of the bill. The tomial tooth on the top mandible is used to snip the spinal cord of the vertebrate prey. Falcons and shrikes each have a tomial tooth, evolved separately. Shrikes are related to vireos, innocuous little forest birds. Members of both families have sharply hooked bills.

The northern shrike is a songbird, slightly bigger than a robin, but smaller than a blue jay. It is gray with white and black when adult. This shrike was a first-year one; it had many waves of fine beige scalloping across its breast.

The northern shrike is always uncommon, and visits Maine only in the winter. Birders always are excited to see one. Some birders have not seen one, and want to. Some out-of-state birders come to Maine just to see one.

This young shrike singled out a black-capped chickadee and started to chase it. The chickadee flew from a small, bushy white pine to other nearby trees and large shrubs, back and forth, with the shrike in hot pursuit. At one point, the shrike hit a window on the building. It sat on a nearby branch and recovered, panting and watching the chickadee.

There were birders inside the center building. They shouted, “Shrike!” at the start, and watched the chase from inside, running from window to window, sometimes running outside onto the porch. They didn’t want to miss a second of this dramatic chase.

The little chickadee had a good strategy. It always flew into the most dense shrubbery. It was amazing to see the shrike push itself laboriously through such dense shrubbery as it followed the chickadee. This chase went on for minutes, but it seemed longer to the onlookers. Finally the shrike prevailed, grabbing the chickadee with its bill and snipping its neck.

Then the shrike flew away from the building, carrying the chickadee in its bill. It flew across the fields and disappeared in the distance, leaving amazed and sobered birders discussing the long dramatic chase. The consensus was that seeing a shrike was exciting, but on the other hand, a chickadee is so spirited, so cheerful – so likeable.

For information on Fields Pond Audubon Center, call 989-2591.