Hoopoe overwintering in NE Bulgaria (1 Viewer)

[Pavel]

Most unusually we have had a Hoopoe overwintering already three months near Durankulak lake in NE Bulgaria! It has survived snowstorms and temperatures as low as 16 below. Today I observed it regurgitate a largish pellet and captured a poor distant photo of it. Is this normal behaviour? It also got me thinking about its diet, obviously insects have been in very short supply recently. Any ideas what it might have been feeding on? It has been mainly on the beach or in the dunes that separate the lake from the Black Sea. Any thoughts welcome!

 

[Britseye]

Most unusually we have had a Hoopoe overwintering already three months near Durankulak lake in NE Bulgaria! It has survived snowstorms and temperatures as low as 16 below. Today I observed it regurgitate a largish pellet and captured a poor distant photo of it. Is this normal behaviour? It also got me thinking about its diet, obviously insects have been in very short supply recently. Any ideas what it might have been feeding on? It has been mainly on the beach or in the dunes that separate the lake from the Black Sea. Any thoughts welcome!

I thought I'd have a quick look in Birds of the Western Palearctic to see if I could help you with your enquiry and after wading through masses of text, I'm sorry to say I found nothing. However, a glance at the distribution map (which I don't have the capacity to reproduce here) reveals a surprising, thin reference to birds having wintered along the coasts of the former Yugoslavia at some point in the past. I also seem to recall at least one wintering in the Highlands of Scotland in recent years; or perhaps one returning in successive winters? Maybe another member has better recall of the latter details than I have.

 

[dantheman]

Hoopoe irregularly overwinter in the UK (but not as cold as minus 16 usually!) Presumably it is finding invertebrates (beetles/larvae etc?) in the dunes and coughing up pellets as part of a normal bird thing (many species do it) for the hard chitinous bits which don't end up coming out the other end ...

 

[RafaelMatias]

Perhaps it's feeding on Amphipods. It would be interesting to examine those regurgitated pellets.

 

[Pavel]

Perhaps it's feeding on Amphipods. It would be interesting to examine those regurgitated pellets.

Today, I just observed it regurgitate a pellet while flying over the lake, so presumably it wouldn't be easy to find it in the reed-beds.