Upupa epops
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The Eurasian hoopoe or common hoopoe (Upupa epops) is the most widespread species of hoopoe. It is a distinctive cinnamon coloured bird with black and white wings, a tall erectile crest, a broad white band across a black tail, and a long narrow downcurved bill. Its call is a soft "oop-oop-oop".
The Eurasian hoopoe is native to Europe, Asia and Africa. It is migratory in the northern part of its range. Some ornithologists consider the Madagascar hoopoe (U. marginata) as a subspecies. The African hoopoe, subspecies U. e. africana, has sometimes been treated as a separate species.
The Eurasian hoopoe was 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.
Eight subspecies are recognised. The subspecies vary in size and the depth... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dubai | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 2 | Luxor | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 3 | Cairo | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 4 | Xiuying District | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Riyadh | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 6 | Tel Aviv | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 7 | Alexandria | 🇪🇬 Egypt | |
| 8 | Suzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Asansol | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Shijiazhuang | 🇨🇳 China |
No species of the same family or order lives in Lusaka, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hoopoe sighting in Lusaka on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 49th most-seen of the 87 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hoopoe in Lusaka on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and November–May, the lowest months. Those are among Lusaka's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain a month against 210 mm in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Hoopoe sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
72nd of 153
Of the 153 cities where we can rate Common Hoopoe sightings, Lusaka ranks 72nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Dubai (United Arab Emirates, about 70%), Luxor (Egypt, about 60%) and Cairo (Egypt, about 60%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Hoopoe is recorded against all the birds logged in Lusaka (13 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.
