Loggerhead Shrike

A Loggerhead Shrike peers curiously at your blogger. Your blogger is quite grateful that he is not a mouse or grasshopper, lest he be pounced upon and torn asunder.

Shrikes are very common in this area (Naples) of Florida. One won't drive far without seeing one on a wire. They tend to be quite tame, and this individual allowed me to walk directly under him, snapping photos all the while.

Shrikes are brutish songbirds, pouncing on about anything that they can overpower. For graphic evidence of their ferocity, see THIS POST about a Northern Shrike.