Northern Shrike (Lanius borealis) in Wasilla

Observation by Michelle Davis:

I've never seen one of these in the winter before. He sat outside and hunted shrews for the afternoon. He's from the shrike family, so not scared of any Corvid viruses. I looked on the audobon site to identify him. They have an interesting tool you can use to see the impacts of climate change on their range: https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-shrike

Comments from LEO Editors:

The Audubon climate maps are a great resource! By the looks of it, winter may become the best time to view northern shrikes (Lanius borealis) in Alaska. According to the species range maps, there are likely populations of northern shrikes present in Southcentral Alaska year-round. However, as summer temperatures rise, shrikes lose much of their habitat in Alaska, including the area around Anchorage/Wasilla. In the image below, the area highlighted in red indicates expected habitat loss with an increase of 3 degrees Celsius. However, under the same temperature projections, shrikes are expected to gain more usable habitat in winter as indicated by the blue highlights. Erica Lujan