A rare bird with a feathered mohican and zebra-striped wings has been spotted pecking around in a Rhondda Cynon Taf garden.
The hoopoe – which has a pinkish-brown body, downcurved bill and weighs in at about the same size as a mistle thrush - showed up in Cwmbach this week, a long way off its usual flight path.
Non native to this part of the world, the eye-catching creature bird can usually be seen in places like Africa or Spain and southern France.
That one has appeared in Aberdare probably means its internal sat nav went on the blink or it was blown of course, causing it to overshoot its normal continental breeding grounds by hundreds of miles.
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Hoopoes haven’t bred in the UK for several decades, and fewer than a hundred are seen in the UK and Ireland each year, with those numbers varying considerably.
The photos of the Valleys visitor were taken by house owner Vicky Lewis and were later shared on the Gwent Birders Facebook site.
Plenty of online twitchers were blown away by the pics.
"Brilliant sighting, "Wow!" and "OMG, that's amazing," went the comments, while Bob Wright added, "I've only ever seen one and that was in Barcelona about 12 years ago.
"So lucky to see this - they really are gorgeous."
Indeed, so seldom are sightings that experts have dubbed it 'a once in a lifetime' event.
"It's been a long time since I saw one in UK, put it that way," said Rachel Davies, the British Trust of Ornithology's senior ecologist for Wales.
"If they do pop-up here it's usually down on the south coast of England where the climate's a bit warmer, but even then it's a very random occurance.
"They're definitely on people's tick list - a real red letter bird," she adds.
"The ones in Africa live there permanently, while those in Europe migrate there for the winter months before returning each spring.
"Seeing one in a garden in Aberdare is probably a once in a lifetime experience and it's likely this one got a bit too enthusiastic on its travels and over-shot a little.
"They can sometimes hang around in the same place for a day or two if the weather's nice and there's enough food about.
"But after that I very much doubt you'll ever see them again.
