"There," said our Hungarian guide, after pointing out a third bright bird species, "now you have seen all the colorful birds of Europe."

We thought Janos Olah was kidding, but a week in Hungary in mid-August turned up one earth-toned bird after another.

Whether they were bright birds or dull birds, they were all new to us. That's because there's not much overlap between Eastern Hemisphere birds and those in the West.

My husband and I had made several bird-watching trips to the tropics. Now we were ready for a much longer plane ride to find new birds. When a British bird tour company happened to mail us a brochure listing a Hungarian trip, we signed on immediately.

Of course, we saw standout birds, including the hoopoe, handsome in cinnamon and black, and the kingfisher, a tiny bird with neon blue feathers. One day, we even saw a flock of bee-eaters land nearby. We'd thought you had to travel to Africa to see these rainbow-hued birds, but here they were, summering in Hungary. But most of the rest of the birds, from songbirds to raptors, seemed designed to fade into the background, a good adaptation for the monochromatic steppes of central Europe.

Weird woodpeckers

Olah said he started the trip in the forests of western Hungary so we could see woodpeckers, and he certainly delivered. We saw seven woodpecker species in one day, including the very odd wryneck, which looks more like a nighthawk than a woodpecker. We also saw several aptly named woodpeckers, including the black woodpecker, a black bird about the size of our pileated but with a red crown; the green woodpecker, which flaunts a green back, and the gray-headed woodpecker, which is gray and green.

On a day that seemed to promise thunder and lightning (as Olah put it, "the sky is filled with gunpowder"), we came across flocks of yellowhammers, which look like house sparrows with yellow heads.

Stucco and storks

We passed through postcard-perfect villages with stork nests atop many chimneys. In fact, in one of the picturesque towns of brightly painted stucco houses, there were more than 40 stork nests on rooftops and light poles.

We also spent several searing afternoons in the Hortobagy, a huge and wild national park. While the temperatures topped 100, our group peered through spotting scopes at birds with exotic names -- spotted redshank, collared pratincole, black-winged stilt, lapwing.

Nippy little falcons

Central Europe also delivers a long list of raptors, from honey buzzards to white-tailed eagles to tawny owls to the hobby, described in the bird guide as a "nippy little falcon." We were impressed with the bright red legs and feet of the aptly named red-footed falcons, which we saw perching in family groups. Near the few ponds we saw, we were rewarded with sightings of blue tits, some of the zippiest birds around. (Think of a chickadee with bright blue head and wings and a bright yellow underside.)

By the time Olah dropped us at the airport in Budapest, our group had observed 127 bird species. We'd also been able to sample several versions of goulash, which, we were reminded everywhere, is "always a soup, never a stew."

Val Cunningham, a St. Paul nature writer, can be reached at valwrites@comcast.net.