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Project Noah Nature School
Upupa epops
Striking and very distinctive pigeon-sized bird. Black and white striped, broad and rounded wings; buffy-pink chest, neck and back. It shows a long, narrow and scimitar-like curved bill, and a distinctive buffy-pink crest with black tips This crest is usually kept folded, except briefly when landing, otherwise is unfolded rarely. Tail is broad, black with a white band.
Observed well hidden in the shadow of fruit trees in a small orchard around the lake. It spent a long time feeding in grass, where it was almost invisible because of its camouflage. On the contrary, easily seen once it takes a flight. - those colors are simply amazing.
While resting around the lake, my kids run to me whispering "Dad, dad, come quickly, Kirikou...". For us, this bird was always linked to Africa - and it is intimately named "Kirikou" - a famous set of West African stories adapted to children books which served as a basis for a couple of animated (and beautiful) films. In one of the movies, the first one, Kirikou, (smaller than the bird then) the hero, is famously attacked by this bird - a scene that marked my sons pretty much. So, even though we all know quite well that this species can be seen also in Europe (and elsewhere), we were all quite surprised to see our "Kirikou" in Croatia.
Spotted on Aug 23, 2015
Submitted on Aug 23, 2015
2 Comments
Wonderful spotting of this amazing bird. Love the notes too :)
Lovely Bird!! Never seen it before. Great Series, beautiful photos and I love your Notes, very nice. Thank you for sharing, Zlatan Celebic.