The last week or two have seen a remarkable influx of Wrynecks into the UK, with four or five being seen at Portland alone. The Wryneck is no longer a British breeding bird but a hundred years ago was a fairly common sight in gardens and orchards, especially in the south east. Luckily they are still quite numerous in Europe which is where our visiting birds come from every Autumn. This bird was in the quarry next to the lighthouse for several days.
Half-way through that video the bird did something very odd, which I've isolated in the video below.
Quite what is going on here I'm not sure. If it's really in response to some perceived threat it would seem odd for the bird to make itself more visible. One theory is that by adopting this and other strange postures Wrynecks might put off a predator by looking more like a snake than a bird. The photos below show the striking similarity between the head of a Smooth Snake and a Wryneck.
