Our man in Sok Kwu Wan reports seeing a hoopoe there. This is a spectacular black white and pink bird with a long curved bill and a long crest - looks like something from a primary school design-a-fantasy-bird contest.

Anyone else seen it?

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A few hoopoe photos, submitted by Zep

I remember seeing these frequently when growing up in Europe, we called them "Wiedehopf".

Is the English name based on their song, maybe? Hoo-poe, hoo-poe?

<img src="http://www.lamma.com.hk/forum/images/e-zine/24/hoopoe.jpg" border=1>

<img src="http://www.lamma.com.hk/forum/images/e-zine/24/hoopoe3.jpg" border=1>

<img src="http://www.lamma.com.hk/forum/images/e-zine/24/Hoopoe-Mansour-Mashour.jpg" border=1>

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I think we saw a lot in the trees by the path to the beach between the cable roads a couple of days ago. At least they had similar crests.

Hoopoes are actually quite rare here - only about one sighting a year - and almost always single, so I guess the tree full had to be another species. Maybe crested bulbuls? They have a prominent crest and a mixture of red white and black.

There are some great pictures of some birds, including the crested bulbul - on this site:

http://go.to/hongkongbird

There is a menu on the left with names of the birds.

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I remember seeing these birds frequently in Southern Africa and so was surprised to see many of them in Mongolia as well. Are they from the same species? They look very similar and seem to have the same flight pattern.