What species of bird is this? Thought it was a flicker but

>>2340350
That's a hoopoe. I saw one when I was deployed to Afghanistan. I was on guard duty, and the sun was just about to come up. It had it's back to me, so I thought it was a crow or something. But then it turned it's head and I clearly saw it's beak and mohawk. Was a very surreal moment.

File: hoopoe.jpg (305KB, 770x600px) Image search: [Google]

305KB, 770x600px

>>2340350
This is a really boring story but I'm going to post it anyway

>be 9 years old
>see a bird for a split second with a pinky/peachy top half and black and white striped bottom half before it flies away
>whoah cool
>ask Dad
>"it was probably just a jay"
>look through bird book and decide it must be a hoopoe, very rare in the UK although it is occasionally seen in the summer
>it really was probably just a jay but fuck it, child-me decides it's a hoopoe
>Hoopoe has blessed me with a sighting, it becomes my favourite bird

>be 22
>labouring hard in India(I was traveling at the time)
>pissed off, aching, tired, generally unhappy
>suddenly movement in the corner of my eye
>a few metres away, stands a hoopoe
>an actual hoopoe this time, actually blessing me with a sighting
>I watch for a few minutes before it majestically flies away
>my inner child was losing it's shit

Hoopoe is best bird.

>>2341010
I'd like to think it was the same bird, anon.

>>2340980
>Deployed to Afghanistan
What's with the accounts of birds that sound like RPGs?
Are people making shit up or is that a thing, if so, do you know what they're called?

>>2342734
Never heard of that before. Probably bullshit. Just like the camel spider stories. Had a guy tell me that a camel spider killed a guy in his old squad. "it bite him with a numbing agent then ate him slowly at night" he told me. I showed him article after article about camel spiders, and all he said was "that's bullshit. I know what I saw". Lying sack of shit.