Hoopoes
The Hoopoe is a colourful and exotic looking bird about the size of a Mistle Thrush with a pinkish-brown body, striking black and white wings, a long black down-curved bill and a long pinkish-brown crest which it raises when excited. It has broad and rounded wings and a characteristic undulating flight which is like that of a giant butterfly and is caused by the wings half closing at the end of each beat or short sequence of beats.
The Hoopoe’s call is typically a trisyllabic and onomatopoetic"oop-oop-oop" which gives rise to its English and scientific names although two and four syllables are also common.
The Hoopoe is widespread in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. Most European and north Asian birds migrate to the tropics in winter whilst the African populations are sedentary all year round. Hoopoes have been known to breed north of their European range, including southern England during warm and dry summers that provide plenty of grasshoppers and similar insects.
The Hoopoe has two basic requirements in its habitat: bare or lightly vegetated ground on which to forage and vertical surfaces with cavities (such as trees, cliffs or even walls, nestboxes, haystacks and abandoned burrows) in which to nest. These requirements can be provided in a wide range of ecosystems and as a consequence they inhabit a wide range of habitats from heathland, wooded steppes, savannas and grasslands as well as glades inside forests. The modification of natural habitats by humans for various agricultural purposes has led to them becoming common in olive groves, orchards, vineyards, parkland and farmland, although they are less common and declining in intensively farmed areas.
Date: 9th September 2013
Location: La Janda, Andalucia, Spain
The Hoopoe’s call is typically a trisyllabic and onomatopoetic"oop-oop-oop" which gives rise to its English and scientific names although two and four syllables are also common.
The Hoopoe is widespread in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. Most European and north Asian birds migrate to the tropics in winter whilst the African populations are sedentary all year round. Hoopoes have been known to breed north of their European range, including southern England during warm and dry summers that provide plenty of grasshoppers and similar insects.
The Hoopoe has two basic requirements in its habitat: bare or lightly vegetated ground on which to forage and vertical surfaces with cavities (such as trees, cliffs or even walls, nestboxes, haystacks and abandoned burrows) in which to nest. These requirements can be provided in a wide range of ecosystems and as a consequence they inhabit a wide range of habitats from heathland, wooded steppes, savannas and grasslands as well as glades inside forests. The modification of natural habitats by humans for various agricultural purposes has led to them becoming common in olive groves, orchards, vineyards, parkland and farmland, although they are less common and declining in intensively farmed areas.
Date: 9th September 2013
Location: La Janda, Andalucia, Spain
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Also in: South Spain - September 2013
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