Dear Montana Birders!
I hope you are all well! We are UK based filmmakers and we are attempting to film Northern Shrike singing and hunting behavior in their winter territories. This is somewhat of an ambitious challenge as a) shrikes are not all that common, b) they don’t always sing, c) they maintain large (like a square mile in area or so) winter territories, and d) they are not always are approachable!
In an effort to find suitable birds for filming, I am seeking the help of the Montana Birding community to keep an eye out for Northern Shrikes while out and about birding this winter and report sightings to an Anecdata.org page that has been set up to gather data on observations. More about the project can be found on the Anecdata page here; https://www.anecdata.org/projects/view/824.
We are collaborating with Professor Eric Atkinson who published some exciting discoveries about the vocal behavior of the Northern Shrike in his 1997 research paper Singing for Your Supper; Acoustical Luring of Avian Prey By Northern Shrikes, and we hope that this project can further our understanding of these incredible birds.
To film, an ideal bird would be:
Many thanks and happy birding!
Tom
I hope you are all well! We are UK based filmmakers and we are attempting to film Northern Shrike singing and hunting behavior in their winter territories. This is somewhat of an ambitious challenge as a) shrikes are not all that common, b) they don’t always sing, c) they maintain large (like a square mile in area or so) winter territories, and d) they are not always are approachable!
In an effort to find suitable birds for filming, I am seeking the help of the Montana Birding community to keep an eye out for Northern Shrikes while out and about birding this winter and report sightings to an Anecdata.org page that has been set up to gather data on observations. More about the project can be found on the Anecdata page here; https://www.anecdata.org/projects/view/824.
We are collaborating with Professor Eric Atkinson who published some exciting discoveries about the vocal behavior of the Northern Shrike in his 1997 research paper Singing for Your Supper; Acoustical Luring of Avian Prey By Northern Shrikes, and we hope that this project can further our understanding of these incredible birds.
To film, an ideal bird would be:
- In a wild, natural landscape, not in an urban environment or coming to a feeder.
- A confident singing bird that is attracting and hunting on passerines.
- Returns to a low (natural) perch.
- As little background noise as possible (for recording song).
- Can be observed singing for extended periods of time (the longer the better!)
Many thanks and happy birding!
Tom
