I have seen many Hoopoe bird poses ...

... but I have never seen a hoopoe dust bathing, until now.

Birds dust bath to remove parasites from their bodies.

Just a simple explanation as you can see more HERE. I had to pull my ghost move in order for her not to fly, and she was watching me all the time. But thankfully, she felt no danger and maybe decided to give me a dust bathing show, with a few poses at the same time. I wonder what she thought, as she saw me standing there, but mind you my skinny tall frame might have looked like some sort of a tree to her:))
In any case, come and enjoy the show.

This is an African Hoopoe (Upupa africana), and as she walked across the ground, watching me, I never expected to see what I saw next.

Vroom, vroom, look at that. A hoopoe dust bathing. Have you ever seen this before?

And then the poses started.

First, she gave me the shy pose.

Then she flipped around to look me in the eye, asking me how I liked her poses. I whispered, Yes!

Then it was time for her to go and preen, and I'm sure the dust killed all the mites on her body.

After preening, in the tag picture, she shook her feathers and her hairdo and she was on her way.

As if to say goodbye, she gave me a final peep.

Like I said, I have never seen this before, although I have seen other birds and animals dust bathing, but never a hoopoe. And no, I was not lucky to see it as I was just in the right place at the right time. This is how Mother Nature plays the game, as she so often pops out these new sightings for me, and she can feel the gratitude in my heart. This is what I love when I am out in nature, as very little escapes my eye.

The good news is that I plan to teach a group of previously disadvantaged youngsters, not only about photography, but also taking them for lessons into nature so that, hopefully, in the future they will teach others about the beauty and the necessity of caring and managing nature. Who knows, if they are successful I might even onboard them on Hive. We shall see.

I hope you have enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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