Winged traveler acts like a model

A hoopoe in Kwun Tong drew over 100 photography enthusiasts after the national bird of Israel was spotted on grassland behind Kwun Tong Promenade.

The medium-sized bird has a long, recurved beak, a pale chestnut neck and breast and a back-tipped golden crown. Its front half is pale gray and its tail has black and white stripes.

A man named Chui said he was passing by and he saw the camera crowd and then a bird he'd never spotted before. "I think it was taking shelter from the wind," he said, "but it stood calmly for photos like a model."

Tom Li Chng-hoi from the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society said the hoopoe stops over in Hong Kong almost every autumn during migratory flights.

"They like to stay and forage on the grass and are not afraid of people," Li noted.

But he appealed for people to keep their distance from what could be an exhausted bird and not to disturb it.