Upupa epops
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hoopoe sighting in Ruaha National Park on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 145th most-seen of the 276 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.
January, March–April and June–July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Hoopoe in Ruaha National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September, the lowest month.
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.
59th of 92
Of the 92 parks where we can rate Common Hoopoe sightings, Ruaha National Park ranks 59th at about 10%. The best odds are in Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 50%), Liwonde National Park (Malawi, about 50%) and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Bucerotiformes
The closest relatives of the Common Hoopoe that you can see in Ruaha National Park (order Bucerotiformes, Hornbills and Hoopoes) are Tanzanian Red-billed Hornbill (about 70%), Von der Decken's Hornbill (about 50%) and Crowned Hornbill (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Hoopoe is recorded against all the birds logged in Ruaha National Park (28 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.
