You TOOK that picture?   You SAW that?   I can't believe that thing EXISTS!!!!
and smells like poo to boot!   

Score, Patti!

I also recommend reading the wikipedia article on the Hoopoe, especially the "relationship to humans" section, which cites mentions of the beast in the Quran and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

A lot of you have more pictures and much more knowledge than I do about hummingbirds. All I've done is sit around with Lou's hummingbird helmet on in Wisconsin, which netted no birds, and take the picture below in Big Sur. What kind is this, please? I knew but forgot. There were gazillions of them.

HOOPOE. A genuine beauty and very, very fabulous. However, UNCLEAN.

Like all ABOMINATIONS, Upupa epops is in good company:

Deuteronomy 14  (similar list is in Leviticus 11):
11 You may eat any clean bird.
12 But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,
13 the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon,
14 any kind of raven,
15 the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
18 the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.

so, WATCH it, you-all.

Hoopoe says his name:
http://www.xeno-canto.org/sounds/uploaded/AFEHYCAHZR/CommonHoopoe2Edwards.mp3
more info and picture source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe

This is great - LOOK at all these birds!!!

I am so enjoying this!  So many birds I'd never seen before! And we're only at G!      

huge thanks to aafke for the terrific idea!

G is for Galapagos Hawk -- ... this one was hanging out on the ground hunting for baby iguanas (at least he doesn't eat vinegar & salt potato chips).

well, good. let's keep it like that. And I'll abstain from baby iguanas.

This is great - LOOK at all these birds!!!

[F]

the Western Gull is an opportunistic feeder, capturing its own live prey, scavenging refuse, or stealing food from seals and other gulls. It is known to steal milk from lactating female seals while they lie on their backs sleeping on the beach.

yes, Western sounds right!!  Thank you, Ei.

But I have to say that the Fs and Gs have been rough on my mental hygiene - disturbing images of critters stealing other critters' food abound:  

- Frigatebirds making other birds sell their lunch;

- (I posted about 2 "F" Nightjars) -- Nightjars and nighthawks are also called Goatsuckers:
"from the mistaken (and somewhat bizarre) belief that they suck milk from goats (the Latin for goatsucker is Caprimulgus)."  (wikipedia)

- and now this. Gulls milking seals.

I have to go make sure my stash of vinegar and salt potato chips is inviolate.

Paul - I love seeing great blues when all their bells and whistles are showing like this!

Ei - that green-winged teal's showing some serious bells and whistles, too. Great bird.

Everyone: what's Ginormous Gull staring in my windshield in the photo way below? I don't know my gulls at all.

Sorry for the blur, but kinglets aren't known for being still...

actually the blur is what makes this such a good photo. The yellow glows, too. I love it

Do I remember correctly that today is Lexie's birthday?

GROUSE, wood (Washington Post photo)
In Russian a wood grouse is called "Glukhar'", which means the deaf one.
Idea being, when they go into courtship display, they can't hear a darn thing, and if you want a grouse, well you can go ahead and get yourself one then. They're not paying any attention to you.

I got back to the car at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal rookery on Hwy 1 and look what was on the hood.

what wonderful photos, Gayle. The 2-Gs is just an incredible photograph.
my best experiences with Great Blue Herons is while canoeing on a river; they take off when you get close, but fly just a little way down the river, so that this interaction repeats over and over and over.

OH Patti - what a GREAT grey!!!

since we're on GREAT, here's a GHO I drew. At least it was a GHO when I started drawing. Then it got grumpy.

another frogmouth from the australian museum.

tawny FROGMOUTH - I love these guys. Like nighthawks/nightjars, more of an amphibian look than a birdy one

c. coverdale, wikimedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tawny_Frogmouth_(Coverdale).jpg

austrailian museum: http://australianmuseum.net.au/image/Tawny-Frogmouth/

london zoo: http://tinyurl.com/2f7rx8z

"It's an entirely new lineage of life that was being eaten and sold in restaurants for food. But it's something that scientists have missed for hundreds of years. It's not that they're not known, locals know all about them. It's just that they're not known to scientists," Dr Grismer said.

full article (in the Independent) at: http://tinyurl.com/35kcff7