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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

African Hoopoe

The African Hoopoe is most conspicuous and cannot be confused with any other species. It normally holds its crest flattened, forming a long point behind the crown. It's only raised when the bird lands, is displaying or alarmed. Although I've seen it raise its crest (excitement?) when it hits pay dirt (excuse the pun!) and pulls a meal from under the grass!
The African Hoopoe which had just landed on my lawn - its crest is slowly subsiding

The crest folded neatly on its head, the black markings are beautifully obvious

No procrastinator, this Hoopoe. It mines the lawn for its meal

Trying another area...

...and excavates a small gnat
Earnestly digging for another morsel
Rewarded with another, bigger insect!

The African Hoopoe is fairly common, usually found in parks and gardens. It's prolific in our area and we regularly have the pleasure of watching these pretty birds work our lawn. 

The African Hoopoe's call is a soft hoo-poo, hoo-poo-poo! 


I'm linking my post to Wild Bird Wednesday here

Happy Wednesday to you all!







7 comments:

  1. This is a very beautiful bird and yuo re so fortunate to be have it come to eat on your lawn Jo. Hope Grant is doing well.

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  2. Hello Jo, it is hard to believe the Hoopoe is a common bird. They are very cool looking birds, I would love to see one some day. Great post, enjoy your day!

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  3. Wow! I didn't know this kind of bird with a large erectile crest!
    Some wonderful birds we can only see in Africa and Asia, isn't it?!
    Hugs from Brazil

    Bia
    www.biaviagemambiental.blogspot.com

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  4. They are so fascinating and wonderful! Great photos of this fun bird.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo