Seasonal Habitat Use and Abundance of Loggerhead Shrikes in South Carolina

Loss of winter habitat has been implicated in the widespread declines of loggerhead shrik ludovicianus) populations; however, our understanding of what represents winter habitat for this s poor. Thus, we investigated whether shrikes in South Carolina used similar habitats throughout the found that during the breeding season shrikes inhabited areas dominated by short, grassy vegetation outside of the breeding season, they decreased (P = 0.047) their use of grassy habitats and increased (0.005) their use of cropland. Declines in shrike populations in the southeastern United States as w entire nation, respectively, were correlated (r = 0.83, n = 15, P < 0.001; r = 0.34, n = 113, P < 0 a loss of pastureland suggesting that this habitat may be limiting. Our data suggest that manage resident shrikes in the southeastern United States should include a patchwork of short grassy h sparsely vegetated bare areas at the scale of individual shrike territories.