Upupa epops

In the wild all over India

My love for the jungles and its inhabitants started when I was about knee high, perched on my grandfathers lap as he taught me jungle lore and narrated the exploits of Jim Corbett. Over the years that love has gradually grown and when my brain needs a refresh, I reach out to the jungle. I first knew the leopard in Rudraprayag from the stories my grandfather narrated as Carpet Sahib tracked and finally brought it down. From then to now I have spent a lot of time traversing the jungles of India and have come across the beautiful wildlife that inhabit these lush forests. Interestingly, the other author from my childhood was the Bangalore based, India-born British hunter & writer, Kenneth Anderson, who combed these very same jungles hunting & photographing wildlife.

In the lush Nilgiri Biosphere, to the south of the famed Nagarhole Tiger Reserve & National Park, on the banks of the river Kasbani lies the area known as Kabini. A major tributary of the Cauvery, the Kasbani is also known as the Kapila river and Kabini River giving the area its name. Consisting mainly of moist deciduous forests, interspersed with teak and eucalyptus plantations, and at a lower altitude compared to Bandipur across the river, Kabini is sprinkled with open grasslands, making it easy to spot wildlife, and providing amazing photographic opportunities. 

The erstwhile exclusive hunting grounds of the kings of Mysore, Kabini has lush forests, small rivulets, hills, valleys and waterfalls making it a veritable paradise for many species like the tiger, dhole, gaur, elephants, chital, sambhar and the leopard. One can also spot the critically endangered oriental white-backed vulture, various species of eagles and the Nilgiri wood pigeon.

So when I started to make the video on the Hoopoe I couldn't resist including some snippets from these emerald jungles of Kabini. The video is only a brief glimpse into some of the exquisite wildlife the lush forests of Kabini shelter. The more time you spend in these jungles the more in love with it you fall. The light is lustrous in the open spaces and seems undistllled from heaven to earth seeming like a laser show at times as gem clear beams filter through the trees. But these forests aren’t the only place I have encountered the hoopoe. The Eurasian hoopoe is common in its range not only across India but also its global range and has a large population. Therefore it is evaluated as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, however, their numbers are declining especially in Western Europe. Click on the buttons below to view and read about the wildlife of the various sanctuaries where I have also encountered the hoopoe. 

Hoopoe

Hoopoes are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers which can be raised or lowered at will. Three living and one extinct species are recognised, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single species — Upupa epops. In fact, some taxonomists still consider all three species conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together but split the Madagascar hoopoe. The Eurasian hoopoe is common in its range and has a large population, so it is evaluated as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, their numbers are declining in Western Europe.

The genus Upupa was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The type species is the Eurasian hoopoe(Upupa epops). Upupa and epops are respectively the Latin and Ancient Greek names for the hoopoe; both, like the English name, are onomatopoeic forms which imitate the cry of the bird.

The hoopoe was classified in the clade Coraciiformes, which also includes kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. A close relationship between the hoopoe and the wood hoopoes is also supported by the shared and unique nature of their stapes. In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the hoopoe is separated from the Coraciiformes as a separate order, the Upupiformes. Some authorities place the wood hoopoes in the Upupiformes as well. Now the consensus is that both hoopoe and the wood hoopoes belong with the hornbills in the Bucerotiformes. The fossil record of the hoopoes is very incomplete, with the earliest fossil coming from the Quaternary. The fossil record of their relatives is older, with fossil wood hoopoes dating back to the Miocene and those of an extinct related family, the Messelirrisoridae, dating from the Eocene.

Formerly considered a single species, the hoopoe has been split into three separate species: the Eurasian hoopoe, Madagascar hoopoe and the resident African hoopoe. One accepted separate species, the Saint Helena hoopoe, lived on the island of St Helena but became extinct in the 16th century, presumably due to introduced species.

The genus Upupa was created by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758. It then included three other species with long curved bills:

• U. eremita (now Geronticus eremita), the northern bald ibis

• U. pyrrhocorax (now Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), the red-billed chough

• U. paradisea

Formerly, the greater hoopoe-lark was also considered to be a member of this genus (as Upupa alaudipes).

Three subspecies are recognised:

• African hoopoe (Upupa africana) - Distributed across South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and the southern half of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) - Distributed across Europe, Asia, and North Africa and northern Sub-Saharan Africa

• Madagascar Hoopoe (Upupa marginata) - Present only in Madagascar

Today we are tracking the Eurasian Hoopoe.

Eurasian Hoopoe

The Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops) is the most widespread species of the genus Upupa. An unmistakable orange bird with a zebra-striped wings, a Chinese fan of a crest (usually held closed, but often raised just after landing), and a rapier of a bill. The hoopoe favours semi-open habitats such as heathland, farmland, orchards, grassy lawns, where it feeds on the ground, probing with its long bill for insects. Their flight is fast and fairly direct, with rather deep wingbeats and unlikely to be confused, but the flight pattern and round wings may loosely resemble that of woodpeckers; note far longer and thinner bill. Their song is a distinctive “hoopoopoo” while the call is a soft "oop-oop-oop". 

The Eurasian hoopoe is native to Europe, Asia and the northern half of Africa. It is migratory in the northern part of its range. Some ornithologists consider the African and Madagascar hoopoes its subspecies.

Formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He cited the earlier descriptions by the French naturalist Pierre Belon and by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, both of which had been published in 1555. Linnaeus placed the Eurasian hoopoe with the northern bald ibis and the red-billed chough in the genus Upupa and coined the binomial name Upupa epops. The specific epithet epops in the Ancient Greek word for a hoopoe.

Six subspecies of the Eurasian hoopoe are recognised in the list of world birds maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). The subspecies vary in size and the depth of colour in the plumage. A further subspecies has been proposed: Upupa epops orientalis in northwestern India.

• Upupa epops epops (Linnaeus, 1758) - Found in northwest Africa and Europe east to central south Russia, northwest China and northwest India. This is the Nominate.

• Upupa epops ceylonensis (Reichenbach, 1853) - Found in central, south India and Sri Lanka. Distinctive feature is that it is smaller than the nominate, more rufous overall and there is no white in the crest.

• Upupa epops longirostris (Jerdon, 1862) - Found in northeast India to south China, Indochina and north Malay Peninsula. Distinctive feature is that it is larger than the nominate and paler. 

• Upupa epops major (Brehm C.L., 1855) - Found in Egypt. Distinctive feature is that it is larger than the nominate, longer billed with a narrower tail band and greyer upperparts

• Upupa epops senegalensis (Swainson, 1837) - Found in Senegal and Gambia to Somalia. Distinctive feature is that it is smaller than the nominate and shorter winged.

• Upupa epops waibeli (Reichenow, 1913) - Found in Cameroon to northwest Kenya and north Uganda. Distinctive features are very similar to the senegalensis but with darker plumage and more white on the wings.

The Eurasian hoopoe is a medium-sized bird, 25–32 cm long, with a 44–48 cm wingspan. It weighs 46–89 grams. The species is highly distinctive, with a long, thin tapering bill that is black with a fawn base. The strengthened musculature of the head allows the bill to be opened when probing inside the soil. The hoopoe has broad and rounded wings capable of strong and a characteristic undulating flight, similar to that of a giant butterfly, caused by the wings half closing at the end of each beat or short sequence of beats. Adults may begin their moult after the breeding season and continue after they have migrated for the winter.

The call is typically a trisyllabic oop-oop-oop, which may give rise to its English and scientific names, although two and four syllables are also common. An alternative explanation of the English and scientific names is that they are derived from the French name for the bird, huppée, which means crested. In the Himalayas, the calls can be confused with that of the Himalayan cuckoo (Cuculus saturatus), although the cuckoo typically produces four notes. Other calls include rasping croaks, when alarmed, and hisses. Females produce a wheezy note during courtship feeding by the male.

The Eurasian hoopoe is widespread in Europe, Asia, and North Africa and northern Sub-Saharan Africa. Most European and north Asian birds migrate to the tropics in winter. Those breeding in Europe usually migrate to the Sahel belt of sub-Saharan Africa. The birds predominantly migrate at night. In contrast, the African populations are sedentary all year. The species has been a vagrant in Alaska; U. e. saturata was recorded there in 1975 in the Yukon Delta. Hoopoes have been known to breed north of their European range, and in southern England during warm, dry summers that provide plenty of grasshoppers and similar insects, although as of the early 1980s northern European populations were reported to be in the decline, possibly due to changes in climate. In 2015, a record numbers of hoopoes were recorded in Ireland, with at least 50 birds recorded in the southwest of the country. This was the highest recorded number since 1965 when 65 individuals were sighted.

The hoopoe has two basic requirements of 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 the hoopoe inhabits a wide range of habitats such as heathland, wooded steppes, savannas and grasslands, as well as forest glades.

Hoopoes make seasonal movements in response to rain in some regions such as in Ceylon and in the Western Ghats. Birds have been seen at high altitudes during migration across the Himalayas. One was recorded at about 6,400 m (21,000 ft) by the first Mount Everest expedition.

In what was long thought to be a defensive posture, hoopoes sunbathe by spreading out their wings and tail low against the ground and tilting their head up; they often fold their wings and preen halfway through. They also enjoy taking dust and sand baths.

Eurasian hoopoes mostly feed on insects, although small reptiles, frogs and plant matter such as seeds and berries are sometimes taken as well. It is a solitary forager which typically feeds on the ground. More rarely they will feed in the air, where their strong and rounded wings make them fast and manoeuvrable, in pursuit of numerous swarming insects. More commonly their foraging style is to stride over relatively open ground and periodically pause to probe the ground with the full length of their bill. Insect larvae, pupae and mole crickets are detected by the bill and either extracted or dug out with the strong feet. Hoopoes will also feed on insects on the surface, probe into piles of leaves, and even use the bill to lever large stones and flake off bark.

The diet of the Eurasian hoopoe includes many species considered by humans to be pests, such as the pupae of the processionary moth, a damaging forest pest. For this reason the species is afforded protection under the law in many countries.

Hoopoes are distinctive birds and have made a cultural impact over much of their range. They were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt, and were "depicted on the walls of tombs and temples". During the Old Kingdom, the hoopoe was used in the iconography as a symbolic code to indicate the child was the heir and successor of his father. They achieved a similar standing in Minoan Crete. 

The Eurasian Hoopoe is listed as a species of "Least concern" by the IUCN. Despite the fact, the species has been in a continuous decline according to the organisation since 2008, the causes being loss of habitat and especially over-hunting which is of concern in southern Europe and Asia. In Europe, the hoopoe seems to have a stable population though it is threatened in several regions. The bird is considered extinct in Sweden and "needing active conservation" in Poland. The species has recovered and stabilised in Switzerland, however they remain vulnerable.

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