wood hoopoe

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Green wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus).

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wood hoopoe

bird

Also known as: Phoeniculidae, kakelaar

Written by Sy Montgomery

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Also called:: kakelaar

Related Topics:: coraciiform; green wood hoopoe

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wood hoopoe, (family Phoeniculidae), any of eight species of tropical African birds included in two genera, Rhinopomastus and Phoeniculus, order Coraciiformes. They range in length from 22 to 38 cm (8.5 to 15 inches), and all are predominately greenish or purplish black, with long graduated tails that are sometimes tipped with white. The bill is slender, pointed, and slightly to strongly downcurved. In fact, the three species of the genus Rhinopomastus are often called scimitarbills, or scimitar-billed hoopoes, from the shape of their bills, which are adapted to probing for insects in crevices or under bark.

The 38-cm (15-inch) green wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) of sub-Saharan Africa lives, rather like wolves, in close-knit groups that are headed by a dominant pair. When neighbouring groups meet, they engage in a distinctive “flag-waving” display. One or two birds from each group wave a piece of bark in the air, while the other birds in each group gather close together, rocking their bodies and calling.

Sy Montgomery