Phoeniculus purpureus
Silhouette: Jon Hill (Photo by DickDaniels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Woodhoopoe_RWD7.jpg) · 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 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 |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe sighting in Moremi Game Reserve on a given day, based on 431 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 47th most-seen of the 334 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.
December
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Green Wood Hoopoe in Moremi Game Reserve on a given day, against about 20% in April–May and July, the lowest months. That is one of Moremi Game Reserve's wettest months, with about 85 mm of rain against almost none in May.
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 40
Of the 40 parks where we can rate Green Wood Hoopoe sightings, Moremi Game Reserve ranks 9th 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 Moremi Game Reserve (431 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 "—". How it works.
