Was this bird the victim of a shrike?

QI noticed this first on the morning of 20 January. Later that morning I noticed a Great Tit apparently investigating the corpse and, later again, a Blue Tit touching it with its beak. I have not noticed a shrike and the site is close to my house. The neck is broken backwards. There have been very strong winds lately and the site is exposed to the prevailing westerlies, but this would surely need great force and a remarkable coincidence. Ed Coleman, Rhayader

AIt’s hard to say what’s happened here, but it‘s very unlikely that the bird could have become impaled itself. It’s possible, of course, that this is some rather macabre mischief on someone’s part, but it does look like the work of a shrike (every winter, a few Great Grey Shrikes winter in the UK). We’d be interested to hear if there have been any sightings in the area. There have been occasional reports, from Finland and elsewhere, of Great Tits attacking and killing other small birds, and even starting to eat them, but we’ve never heard of them impaling them, shrike-style.