Wryneck

Description:

A lifer for me today afternoon, a bird I've been hoping to see since long time. While photographing it, I did not recognize it - from some 25m away and shooting against the sun, by silhouette I thought it was some lark... and had a great surprise when working the pics on larger screen. Wryneck is roughly the blackbird size, mottled-brown with some black stripes and scaly-looking above, and cream-coloured below, with some horizontal stripes on throat, while speckled brown on the belly. The bill is short with large base, unlike its "cousins", woodpeckers.

Habitat:

Here, seen feasting on exposed insects after the grass and flowers were cut (against my wishes...) on terraces in our garden. Located at outskirts of Dubrovnik, on lower slopes of Srdj mountain, the garden is terraced and covered in Mediterranean fruit trees and spontaneous vegetation. In spring, these terraces are overgrown in beautiful dense carpet of spontaneous Mediterranean herbs and melliferous flowers.