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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hoopoe in my Backyard!

Hoopoe (Upupa epops)

My boys and I spread some bird seed in the garden beds over the weekend. I like to do this for a few reasons:
  • the birds deposit manure right where I want them to
  • the birds scratch up the dirt mixing in the manure
  • while they are searching for seeds they will occasionally find a pest to eat
  • the accidentally bury some of the seeds which will later sprout and either provide them food for later or I snip it out leaving the roots to provide additional organic matter to the beds
  • and finally it is just fun to bird watch!

About an hour after the seeds were cast, I walked by the sliding glass doors and saw a bird I had not seen since I was touring through southern Africa. It was the amazingly beautiful Hoopoe. It saw me immediately and took to wing. Unfortunately I didn't have time to get the boys or my wife or a camera, but just getting to glimpse such a creature reminds me, yet again, why having a garden is such a worthwhile effort.

Another Hoopoe with the feathers of its head (crown) down.

Here is a distrubution map for the Hoopoe, for all you bird nerds like me out there.
Green: resident population
Orange: breeding summer visitor
Blue: wintering

5 comments:

  1. I have been wondering what kind of bird that was since we got to Turkey. I just called it the Zebra bird. I like my name better. It certainly seems much more fitting than "Hoopoe"

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  2. spectacular shot! I grew up in southern India and Hoopoes were my favorite birds. I just decided to make a fabric bird and wanted some source imagery - came across this lovely shot on your blog. Difficult to do a bird in flight with all those wings...might just do a sitting one, but wanted to let you know I enjoyed your blog.

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  3. This has been my favourit bird ever since going to Israel at the age of 18 and seeing them there. I am very jealous that most of the World has got these birds but not us, not in Britain! Damn!

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