Hoopoe

"Hoopoe (Upupa epops)" by Arturo Nikolai Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons

Another thematic species from our Gran Canaria trip. I'd only seen one once before in Europe when staying with friends in Parthenay, France. It's a Hoopoe, Upupa epops, and a year round resident in the Canaries. In France it's a migrant breeder. In fact it is found throughout France in the summer but rarely makes it across the channel.
They are actually quite small, about the size of a starling, and the bill is extremely fine and delicate-looking. The name, both common and binomial, is onomatopoeic after its call.