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Portrait of Hoopoe

Nature · Birds

Hoopoe

Scarce passage migrant · 25–32 cm

Upupa epops — Upupidae (its own family)

An unmistakable pinkish-buff bird with boldly barred black-and-white wings, a long down-curved bill and a fannable crest tipped with black. In Britain it is a scarce spring overshoot, most often found on short turf in the south-west, and it has bred here only a handful of times. Its name, its genus and its species name all imitate the same soft, far-carrying "oop-oop-oop".

How to spot them

  • ▸Pinkish-buff body with black-and-white barred wings and tail — unmistakable in flight, like a giant butterfly
  • ▸Long, fannable crest tipped with black, raised on landing
  • ▸Long, slim, slightly down-curved bill, used to probe short turf for leatherjackets and mole crickets
  • ▸Soft, far-carrying trisyllabic 'oop-oop-oop' — the source of every part of its name
  • ▸In Britain, usually a single bird on a lawn or short grass in April, in the south and west

How to know it

Pinkish-buff bird with boldly barred black-and-white wings, flapping like a giant butterfly across a lawn

Hoopoe — Upupa epops.

Raises a long black-tipped crest like a fan on landing, and probes short turf with a slim down-curved bill

Hoopoe — it feeds on leatherjackets, beetle larvae and mole crickets.

A soft far-carrying 'oop-oop-oop' that gives the bird its English name, its genus and its species name alike

Hoopoe — Upupa epops; both Latin and Greek imitate the call.

Chiefly a spring overshoot in Britain, arriving on southern coasts in April and very seldom staying to breed

Hoopoe — around a hundred or so are recorded each year.

King Solomon's messenger in the Qur'an, and the leader of the birds in the Persian poem The Conference of the Birds

Hoopoe — the national bird of Israel since 2008.

Bred in Leicestershire and Rutland in 2023, the first confirmed British nesting since 1996

Hoopoe — Rare Breeding Birds Panel 2023 report.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Scientific name Upupa epops: the Latin upupa and the Greek epops both imitate the call, as does the English 'hoopoe'
  • •It is the only member of the family Upupidae
  • •In Britain it is a scarce passage migrant, with roughly a hundred or so birds a year, most in spring in the south and west
  • •It bred in Leicestershire and Rutland in 2023, raising three young — the first confirmed UK breeding since 1996 (Rare Breeding Birds Panel)
  • •It is on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; as a scarce visitor it is not assessed on the Birds of Conservation Concern lists
  • •It has been the national bird of Israel since 2008
  • •It is the hud-hud, King Solomon's messenger to the Queen of Sheba, in the Qur'an, and leads the birds in Attar's Persian poem The Conference of the Birds
  • •Nestlings and the brooding female produce a foul-smelling secretion from the preen gland, and the young can squirt faeces at intruders
  • •It is related not to the woodpeckers but to the hornbills and wood-hoopoes

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources