Phoeniculus purpureus
Silhouette: Jon Hill (Photo by DickDaniels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Woodhoopoe_RWD7.jpg) ยท PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
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 Paweล Jarocki.
Six subspecies are recognised: The green wood hoopoe...
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | ๐ฌ๐ฒ Gambia | |
| 2 | Accra | ๐ฌ๐ญ Ghana | |
| 3 | Harare | ๐ฟ๐ผ Zimbabwe | |
| 4 | Lomรฉ | ๐น๐ฌ Togo | |
| 5 | Johannesburg | ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa | |
| 6 | Pretoria | ๐ฟ๐ฆ South Africa | |
| 7 | Lagos | ๐ณ๐ฌ Nigeria | |
| 8 | Abuja | ๐ณ๐ฌ Nigeria | |
| 9 | Lilongwe | ๐ฒ๐ผ Malawi | |
| 10 | Cotonou | ๐ง๐ฏ Benin |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 2 | SeaWorld San Diego | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 3 | San Diego Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 4 | North Carolina Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 5 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 6 | Bronx Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 7 | Detroit Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 8 | Cape May County Park & Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 9 | Moody Gardens | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 10 | Indianapolis Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 11 | Honolulu Zoo | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 12 | Zoo Atlanta | ๐บ๐ธ United States | |
| 13 | Oceanium | ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe sighting in Mole National Park on a given day, based on 134 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 69th most-seen of the 266 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and November
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe in Mole National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April and June, the lowest months. Those are among Mole National Park's wettest months, with about 110 mm of rain a month against almost none in January. July 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.
10th of 41
Of the 41 parks where we can rate Green Wood Hoopoe sightings, Mole National Park ranks 10th at about 30%. The best odds are in Gonarezhou National Park (Zimbabwe, about 60%), Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 50%) and Lower Zambezi National Park (Zambia, about 50%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Green Wood Hoopoe is recorded against all the birds logged in Mole National Park (134 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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 "โ". How it works.
