ABCs of BIRDS - H!

[dale]

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

[dale]

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.

[Patti from Kentucky]

OK...I'll see your weird looking bird and raise you.

This is a Hoatzin, another amazonian bird.  I took both photos in Peru, at the Tambopata Reserve.  Like the Hoopoe, you wouldn't want to eat the Hoatzin, unless you enjoy a bird with a "disagreeable, manure-like odor"  (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoatzin).

You might want to read the full wikipedia article; Hoatzins are unique in several ways!

The first photo is the halfway decent one; the second one was blurry, but I thought turned out rather interesting in spite of the blur (or maybe because of the blur).

[dale]

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.

[Patti from Kentucky]

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.

The "relationship to humans" section was interesting...but the predator defense tactics, even more so!  Secreting a substance that smells like rotting meat that they rub into their feathers, shooting feces (and I thought only primates did that), and hissing like snake!  Pretty cool bird, but I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

[dale]

  Secreting a substance that smells like rotting meat that they rub into their feathers, shooting feces (and I thought only primates did that), and hissing like snake!  Pretty cool bird, but I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

I bet it's behavior like that that got him into some Old-Testament-sized trouble.
But his bad side is surely also fabulous.

[Patti from Kentucky]

I have posted this photo before on this forum...but the story is worth a re-run!  This is a female Hooded Warbler.  We met her as we were hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  We were tripping merrily down the trail when a rather clueless fledgling came hopping up the trail directly at us.  I think it hadn't yet learned to avoid humans, and was friendly and curious like most young things.  Mother Hooded Warbler got concerned about her goofy youngster, flew down in front of us and tried the "broken wing" routine to try and lure us away from her offspring.  Very cute.  We stayed long enough to snap this picture and then gave them some space.  Happily, the fledgling didn't try to follow us!

[Patti from Kentucky]

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.

I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow, and I've already packed my "Western" field guide away, so I'm no help with your bird.  But I'll add my own favorite backyard hummingbird photo (Ruby-throated Hummingbird).

[Patti from Kentucky]

Northern Harrier - this guy is a juvenile.  I took the photo during fall migration in Cape May.

[dale]

But I'll add my own favorite backyard hummingbird photo (Ruby-throated Hummingbird).

wonderful picture. my optic nerve is sizzling a bit

[Patti from Kentucky]

My final contribution to the "H" list:  a Harris's Hawk.  We met this hawk while camping in the Red River Gorge Geological Area in Kentucky...we heard an unusual bird call and while looking all around to identify the culprit, noticed that the campers in the next site over had a captive hawk.  They invited us over to meet the hawk, who was very laid back.

Harris's Hawks are more social than most other hawks; they do cooperative hunting, so they are a good choice for a beginning falconer.

[dale]

I have a harris hawk picture, too, with a "beginning falconer" --

[annieinelkhart]

I can't compete with the "really different" ones you all seem to have seen.  But this was for sure a different one for me last year.
Tri colored Heron in Blue Springs. 

[Annette]

Harpyie - a big bird of prey

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harpia_harpyja_qtl1.jpg

[Kris G.]

Harpyie - a big bird of prey

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harpia_harpyja_qtl1.jpg

WOW!