Hoopoes (Upupidae)

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Hoopoes

(Upupidae)

Class Aves

Order Coraciiformes

Suborder Bucerotes

Family Upupidae

Thumbnail description
Medium-sized bird with long, thin, decurved bill, prominent erectile crest, broad, rounded wings, and short legs

Size
10.2–12.6 in (26–32 cm); 0.08–0.2 lb (38–89 g)

Number of genera, species
1 genus; 1 species

Habitat
Open country with bare earth or short grass, usually with some trees; needs cavities for nesting

Conservation status
Not threatened; one species probably extinct since 1600

Distribution
Africa, Europe, and Asia

Evolution and systematics

The hoopoe (Upupa epops) has long been considered to be related to the hornbills (Bucerotidae), and Tertiary fossil evidence supports this view. Its closest relatives are the wood-hoopoes and scimitarbills (Phoeniculidae), with which the hoopoe shares characters such as feather structure, pterylosis, tongue structure, bill morphology, skeletal features, and egg-white proteins. DNA-DNA hybridization studies suggest that the hoopoe diverged from the hornbills, and the wood-hoopoes and scimitarbills from the hoopoe.

The hoopoe differs from all other Coraciiform birds in having no expansor secondarium muscle and in the newly hatched chick being downy. The bird also has a tufted uropygial gland that produces a foul smell to repel nest intruders. Such characteristics have led some authors to place it in a separate order, the Upupiformes.

Although it is usually regarded as a polytypic single species, some authors regard the Madagascar hoopoe (subspecies marginata) as a full species on the basis of its distinctive advertising call and large size. The nine subspecies are separated mainly on size, color, and wing pattern. Subfossils of a large, probably flightless hoopoe (Upupa antaois) are known from St. Helena island in the South Atlantic.

Physical characteristics

Several striking plumage and structural features make this medium-sized bird unmistakable. The plumage on the chest varies from pinkish to chestnut, while the broad, rounded wings, the back, and the tail are boldly barred black and white. The spectacular erectile crest is the same color as the head and tipped with black. The bill is long, slender, and decurved; modified musculature allows it to be opened when the bird probes for food. The tongue is reduced. Hoopoes have shorter legs, better suited to their ground-foraging habits.

The sexes are extremely similar. Juveniles are duller than adults, the white in the wings is tinged with cream and the crest and bill are relatively short. Nestlings have long, fluffy white down covering their entire bodies.

Distribution

The hoopoe ranges throughout Africa except in deserts and forested regions, in the drier west of Madagascar, and through Asia and Europe from the Iberian Peninsula north to the Gulf of Finland, the Sakmara River, the southern Lake Baikal region, and the middle Amur and Khungari Rivers. In Asia the species occurs throughout Sri Lanka, Indochina, and Taiwan, east to Japan, and south to the Malay Peninsula. It is a rare straggler south to northern Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines. The distribution of the nine subspecies is as follows: U. e. epops: northwestern Africa, Canary Islands, and Europe east to south central Russia, northwestern China, and northwestern India; U. e. major: Egypt, northern Sudan, and eastern Chad; U. e. senegalensis: southern Algeria and Senegal east to Ethiopia and Somalia; U. e. waibeli: Cameroon and northern DRC east to Uganda and northern Kenya; U. e. africana: central DRC east to central Kenya and south to Cape;

U. e. marginata: Madagascar; U. e. saturata: south central Russia east to Japan and south to central China and Tibet; U. e. ceylonensis: Pakistan and northern India south to Sri Lanka;U. e. longirostris: Assam and Bangladesh east to southern China, south to northern Malay Peninsula and Indochina.

Habitat

Hoopoes occur from boreal to temperate and tropical zones, preferring warm, dry regions with level or undulating terrain. They require bare or short-grassed open land for foraging and cavities in trees, walls, rocks, banks, or termite mounds for nesting. Habitats include pastures, parkland, orchards, vineyards, woodland edges and clearings, steppes, plains, dry and wooded savannas, river valleys, foothills, scrub, semi-desert, and (in Southeast Asia) coastal dune scrub. Hoopoes avoid areas with damp substrates. Only in Madagascar are they associated with the forest, being most common at the margins of heavily wooded forest and even penetrating primary forest. Hoopoes range up to 10,170 ft (3,100 m) above sea level, normally occurring below 6,560 ft (2,000 m).

Behavior

The hoopoe is a monogamous species and strongly territorial when breeding. Males begin calling several weeks

before breeding commences. The song is series of two to five far-carrying "hoop" notes, except in the Madagascar race, which has a soft, rolling purr. Territorial birds use song posts.

The hoopoe is a relatively confiding bird and in some areas has become a commensal of humans. The crest is usually held flat but raised when the bird alights or is excited. The flight is distinctive, with erratic, butterfly-like flapping. Hoopoes perch readily and can climb rough surfaces. They are diurnal, roosting in cavities at night.

Hoopoes are migratory over much of their range. Most Palearctic birds migrate to Africa and southern Asia after breeding. Races breeding in Asia make shorter-range movements to southern Asia, where the Siberian race (saturatus) also winters. Local populations in Africa and southern Asia are migratory, resident, or nomadic.

Feeding ecology and diet

The food is mainly insects, particularly larvae and pupae. Prey includes beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, butterflies, dragonflies, ants, termites, and flies. Spiders, earthworms, woodlice, and centipedes are also taken, while lizards, frogs, and small snakes have been recorded.

Hoopoes forage mainly in short grass and on bare soil. They walk about, constantly making short probes into the ground and sometimes pausing to insert the bill fully, opening and closing it to test or seize objects encountered. Hoopoes sometimes dig small holes with the bill to extract prey. They make short runs to catch prey, hawk flying insects, and search below refuse and dry dung, which are turned over with the bill.

Reproductive biology

Hoopoes nest in holes in trees, walls, cliffs, banks, termite mounds, flat ground, and crevices between rocks. Little or no nest material is used, and the nest cavity is often fetid. A nest site may be used for several years.

The male selects the nest site and establishes the territory. Intruders are chased in the air and on the ground. The male courtship-feeds the female, after which activity copulation usually takes place. The monogamous pair often fly slowly round the territory, one behind the other, raising and lowering their crests.

Eggs are produced at a rate of one per day. The clutch size is four to seven in the tropics and five to nine (maximum 12) in temperate regions. The incubation period is 15–18 days, only the female incubates, and hatching is asynchronous. The nestling period is 25–32 days. Fledged young start self-feeding after six days, thereafter remaining with the parents for some weeks. Hoopoes are normally single-brooded, although two or three broods are recorded. Of 172 eggs laid in 24 nests (Europe), 74% hatched and 58% fledged.

Nestlings defend themselves by hissing, jabbing upwards with the bill, producing an evil-smelling secretion from the uropygial gland, and spraying feces. Adults have a striking defense posture, with wings and tail spread on the ground, head thrown back, and bill raised.

Conservation status

This widespread species is locally common in many areas but has suffered obvious losses, especially at the edges of its range. In Europe, the hoopoe's range has been contracting since the late nineteenth century, with an especially strong decline since 1955–60. This decline is often attributed to climatic change, but may be due more to changes in farming practices and land use. In 2001, its European population was estimated at 700,000–900,000, with five to 10 million birds worldwide.

In Africa, Madagascar, and Asia desertification and habitat loss through high-intensity farming practices have adversely affected the hoopoe's numbers. Migrants are still persecuted by hunters in southern Europe and parts of Asia.

Significance to humans

This striking and unmistakable bird has a long pedigree in human culture. It was used as a hieroglyphic and revered in ancient Egypt. The hoopoe figures prominently in Aristophanes' play The Birds, features widely in folklore, and has long been celebrated in literature. Its scientific name and vernacular names in several languages, are onomatopoeic.

The hoopoe's diet includes insect pests of agriculture and forestry, and its usefulness in controlling such pests has been recognized in many areas. The hoopoe is consequently very widely protected by national laws.

Resources

Books

Cramp, S., ed. The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Vol. 4, Terns to Woodpeckers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Fry, C. H., S. Keith, and E. K. Urban, eds. The Birds of Africa. Vol. 3. London: Academic Press, 1988.

Glutz von Blotzheim, U. N., and K. M. Bauer. Handbuch der Vögel Mitteleuropas. Vol. 9. Frankfurt am Main: Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1980.

Hagemeijer, W. J., and M. J. Blair, eds. The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds. London: Poyser, 1997.

Harrison, J. A., D. G. Allan, L. G. Underhill, M. Herremans, A. J. Tree, V. Parker, and C. J. Brown, eds. The Atlas of Southern African Birds. Vol. 1, Non-passerines. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa, 1997.

Stattersfield, A. J., and D. R. Capper, eds. Threatened Birds of World: xsThe Official Source for Birds on the IUCN Red List. Cambridge: BirdLife International, 2000.