Birdline Victoria Update -20/05/01

That Hoopoe report may be doubted by some. But it clearly WAS a
hoopoe BECAUSE it was in the garden of the Clegy House.  

Chapter 10 of Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book (1980) is
about dealing with those queries from non-birders who have funny
birds in their gardens. 

"Of course you're lucky if a vicar tells you: 'I've seen this
big pink bird...and a sort of crest.' That's a Hoopoe, and no
mistake. But it's not a Hoopoe because it's pink ..It is a
Hoopoe because it's on a vicar's lawn. If anybody else reports
'a big bird...', it's a Jay." [Garrulus glandarius.]

Michael
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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