mystery bird

[melbers]

Hi I had a bird on my feeder this morning and not sure what it is, it was about the size of a crow, brownish body and black and white wings, very distinctive , I thought it was a Hoopoe but it didn't seem to have a crest, we live in the country near a fishing lake and surounded by farm land, anyone got any ideas, please, it had quite large wing span from what I could see

[Dogghound]

Jay?

[melbers]

thanks but not a Jay , I've seen them before , I've never seen a bird like this , I know Hoopoe has been seen in the area, but want to know if when they have their crests down they can almost not been seen, it was wet this morning

[Jonners]

I would be surprised to see a Hoopoe on a feeder as they tend to be ground feeders. You should have noticed the long beak, and the crest, even if flattened (see below), and the black and white rounded wings as it flew.

[melbers]

it definately had black and white wings almost stripey, any ideas what it might have been

[htcdude]

I'd be very surprised to see a Hoopoe on a feeder, I don't know how it would manage with a beak like is has!

Your bird sounds very characteristic of a Jay though. Maybe it was a young one and because it's very wet just looks a bit washed out?

Other than that there aren't any other British birds of that size that fit your description, so only other possibility is an escapee of some sort.

Nige

[RobinP]

It's not that unusual to see a crow with black and white wings, you can find a lot of photos on the web, here's one example:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_EEWqRtnBt1...-Winged)+2.jpg

Robin

[RKB]

Great Spotted Woodpecker?