Phoeniculus purpureus
Silhouette: Jon Hill (Photo by DickDaniels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Woodhoopoe_RWD7.jpg) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The green wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) is a large, up to 44 cm (17 in) long tropical bird native to Africa. It is a member of the family Phoeniculidae, the wood hoopoes, and was formerly known as the red-billed wood hoopoe.
In 1784 the English illustrator John Frederick Miller included a hand-coloured plate of the green wood hoopoe in his Icones animalium et plantarum. He coined the binomial name Promerops purpureus and mistakenly specified the type locality as eastern India. The green wood hoopoe is now one of five species placed in the genus Phoeniculus that was introduced in 1821 by the Polish zoologist Feliks Paweł Jarocki.
Six subspecies are recognised: The green wood hoopoe... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 2 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Lomé | 🇹🇬 Togo | |
| 5 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 8 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 9 | Lilongwe | 🇲🇼 Malawi | |
| 10 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | SeaWorld San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | North Carolina Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Detroit Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Cape May County Park & Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Moody Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Indianapolis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Honolulu Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Zoo Atlanta | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Oceanium | 🇳🇱 Netherlands |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe sighting in Lilongwe on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 52 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe in Lilongwe on a given day, against about 10% in June–September and November–April, the lowest months. That is one of Lilongwe's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 310 mm in January. October has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Green Wood Hoopoe sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 11
Of the 11 cities where we can rate Green Wood Hoopoe sightings, Lilongwe ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Serrekunda (Gambia, about 50%), Accra (Ghana, about 50%) and Harare (Zimbabwe, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Green Wood Hoopoe is recorded against all the birds logged in Lilongwe (12 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
