Before barbed wire the shrike would spike it's victims on a sharp thorn, still do, but they don't scorn modern technology when it's handy.
Must have taken quite a bit of force to get the barb through the beetles hard shell. The bird remembers where his victims are spiked and if hunting has been bad, he has some jerky waiting for him.
The culprit, a small, but very handsome bird. It's victims include insects, small lizards, fledgling birds, in fact anything it can catch. The black mask looks a lot like that of old time executioners
Photo: Internet.
