#klapekster

[donderkop]

Klapekster aka Bird ❤️

[diningwiththeasquiths]

BAM! See this bird right here? This is a Great Grey Shrike. That's right, like the Minnesota Shrike from NBC's Hannibal. Impaling their prey and whatnot. Coincidentally they are one of my favourite birds, partly because their name in Dutch loosely translates to 'SMACK MAGPIE'.

This is a stuffed one in my local natural history museum. ❤

[entophiles]

Pinned by Loe Giesen on Flickr.

I thought this had a cool story, no idea birds did this: 

While walking along a barbed wire fence this morning I suddenly saw this ghastly scene. It's hard to imagine that this bug impaled itself in some strange natural way, e.g. in flight. Though the fence is off the beaten track, maybe some weird twisted mind made a cruel end to this insect's life in this gruesome way.

PS: A few days after posting this picture the mystery may be solved. It seems the Great Grey Shrike, Red-backed Shrike and other shrikes impale corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder". The second one is frequently seen in this area. Thank you, Angelique and Wiel.