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What bird did I just see?

S

Steve Lewis

Senior Member
Started off posting this in the social board, but as this leans to the forum's general naturalist outlook (and I know there are a few twitchers on here)...

Not long returned from my lunchtime constitutional where today I decided to walk along the greenway cycle path to the next village. On the way back I spotted a bird I'd never seen before - it stood about 8-10inches off the ground, very thin and long stick-like legs, vibrant green breast (I thought it was a leaf until I got closer), dark head and wings (I couldn't say what colour exactly as it flew off, but could've been dark grey, light black, dark brown, even something like very dark purple).

Any ideas?

I've done some googling, but without really knowing what I'm looking for all I could do was put in a vague description and nothing that matched came back.
 
Steve Lewis said:
Started off posting this in the social board, but as this leans to the forum's general naturalist outlook (and I know there are a few twitchers on here)...

Not long returned from my lunchtime constitutional where today I decided to walk along the greenway cycle path to the next village. On the way back I spotted a bird I'd never seen before - it stood about 8-10inches off the ground, very thin and long stick-like legs, vibrant green breast (I thought it was a leaf until I got closer), dark head and wings (I couldn't say what colour exactly as it flew off, but could've been dark grey, light black, dark brown, even something like very dark purple).

Any ideas?

I've done some googling, but without really knowing what I'm looking for all I could do was put in a vague description and nothing that matched came back.
Click to expand...
Green woodpecker maybe?
 
RSPB website has an identifier that may or may not help.

Birds A-Z | Bird Guides

Browse our UK bird guide by name. See birds alphabetised by name and family, A-Z in this handy guide
www.rspb.org.uk www.rspb.org.uk

Long legged sounds like some sort of wetland wader, perhaps Godwit or similar though I think the colours may not tally.
 
Yar, not a lapwing, nor Derek's nightclub ex.

Couldn't see anything that matched on the RSPB guide - either the colours were wrong or the legs were too stubby.

I'm thinking maybe an escaped exotic or, possibly, a migrating visitor that made a wrong turn somewhere.
 
You say the legs were long and thin, then that really narrows it down to be a wader, the main suspect would be the Lapwing, but you have discounted that, given wading birds are normally grouped together its an odd one. I have a fascination with bird spotting having just moved to the edge of a field lol, have upgraded my camera, and invested in a trail camera, to date I have captured the neighbours cat, Mr Fox and the missus putting out the washing...
I happened upon a Hoopoe once whilst driving through Cheltenham, perched on the park railings, that was quite a spot.
Take the camera with you at all times Steve, you never know when you need it.
 
Neil Smart said:
You say the legs were long and thin, then that really narrows it down to be a wader, the main suspect would be the Lapwing, but you have discounted that, given wading birds are normally grouped together its an odd one. I have a fascination with bird spotting having just moved to the edge of a field lol, have upgraded my camera, and invested in a trail camera, to date I have captured the neighbours cat, Mr Fox and the missus putting out the washing...
I happened upon a Hoopoe once whilst driving through Cheltenham, perched on the park railings, that was quite a spot.
Take the camera with you at all times Steve, you never know when you need it.
Click to expand...
There's an hoopoe around me in Sheffield. I hear it pretty much every morning. I've not seen it but my neighbour has.
Arrived last spring but I thought it would have flown south by now.
 
Andrew Richardson said:
There's an hoopoe around me in Sheffield. I hear it pretty much every morning. I've not seen it but my neighbour has.
Arrived last spring but I thought it would have flown south by now.
Click to expand...
According to my Rare Bird Alert app, there are currently 2 wintering Hoopoes in England, one is in Cambridgeshire and the other is in Wawickshire.

If your hearing but not seeing it, it could be a Collard Dove?
 
Andrew Richardson said:
There's an hoopoe around me in Sheffield. I hear it pretty much every morning. I've not seen it but my neighbour has.
Arrived last spring but I thought it would have flown south by now.
Click to expand...
For the Hoopoe to be that far north is quite something, they show up in the south more now but that shows I guess the effect of warming. Hope you get to see it is quite a sight.
Another rare bird I was lucky to see was a cattle Egret, perched on the back of a long horn Bull.
And an Osprey diving right in front whilst fishing the Itchen, catching a Sea Trout!
 
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