African Hoopoe

We woke this morning with the sun shining bright, although it’s still quite cold here. Spotted an unusual bird on the lawn so reached for my camera and through the window managed to get a photograph, its not a very good one, but shows some of the detail of this beautiful creature.

Apparently its an African Hoopoe (Upupa Africana) which I presume most Europeans know, however, never ever have we seen one in England so feel sure they haven’t crossed the channel. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who knows different.

We do not generally encourage birds into the garden due to having the four cats which are often on the prowl, but that doesn’t seem to deter the birds from visiting us, and some are so unusual and different. I will, in the future have to take more of an active interest in capturing these on my camera as there are so many we do not recognise, and they are so attractive.