Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Pesticide and PCB residues for loggerhead shrikes in the Shenandoah Valley

January 1, 1990

The decline in loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) populations is widespread and coincides with the use of organochlorines that began in the late 1940's and increased until the 1970's (Morrison 1981; Robbins et al. 1986; Tate 1986). An inhabitant of farmland areas, loggerhead shrikes prey on invertebrates and small vertebrates (Bent 1950), and thus risk exposure to pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. The role of contaminants in the decline of loggerhead shrikes has only been partially assessed (Busbee 1977; Anderson and Duzan 1978; Morrison 1979; Rudd et al. 1981). Studies of the nesting and winter ecology of loggerhead shrikes (Luukkonen 1987; Blumton 1989) during 1985-88 in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia provided the opportunity to collect eggs and carcasses for contaminant residue analysis. In this paper we provide pesticide and polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) residue data for eggs and carcasses collected.

Publication Year 1990
Title Pesticide and PCB residues for loggerhead shrikes in the Shenandoah Valley
DOI 10.1007/BF01700988
Authors A. K. Blumton, J.D. Fraser, R.W. Young, S. Goodbred, S.L. Porter, D.L. Luukkonen
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
Index ID 70198473
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center