Hoopoe heaven (1 Viewer)

Katy Penland

Well-known member

• Jul 27, 2004

• #1

When I was in Germany last year and got to do some birding, one of my target spp was the hoopoe, on which I dipped. However, just returned from two weeks of meetings in Sorrento, Italy, and got out for a couple days' sightseeing.

Standing in the railway station at Paestum, the site of some exquisite Greco-Roman temple ruins, I about fell off the platform when a brown-backed, curve-billed, black-and-white winged/tailed bird flew from across a nearby clutch of trees less than 100' away. I couldn't believe it was a hoopoe so casually appearing when I was least expecting it. It was soooo hot that day, too, that I'd kept my binoculars in my bag instead of hanging around my neck, but I quickly unshipped them hoping the bird would reappear. It did!!!!! This time for a slightly longer flight and then landed back in its originating tree for a nice, long, confirming view. Wow...... Even my non-birding friend was suitably impressed with this beautiful bird. So while I didn't get out a single day to do any hardcore birding the entire two weeks I was in Sorrento, I was over the moon getting a lifer and a sp that I'd really wanted to see. Wow..... I still get out my field guide for more looks at it. What an amazing bird.

Okay, I'll calm down now!

 

alan_rymer

Well-known member

• Jul 27, 2004

• #2

Well done Katy
Such beautiful birds!.

 

scampo

Steve Campsall

• Jul 27, 2004

• #3

They're one of those birds that in countries where they are around, they seem to be everywhere and you soon become accustomed to their splendour. We get them most years in the UK, but I've only ever seen one once here. You have taken a fine memory back home with you, for sure.

 

Last edited: Jul 27, 2004

Grousemore

Senior Member

• Jul 27, 2004

• #4

Nice one,Katy,always an enjoyable bird...wondered where you'd been,you've missed a lot of ID Threads!

 

Andrew

wibble wibble

• Jul 27, 2004

• #5

Katy, Indeed one of our most wonderful European birds. Glad you were delighted with it but I must say I am not surprised your non-birding friend was impressed too!

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 28, 2004

• #6

It's a really fabulous and bizarre looking bird and I can understand your excitement, Katy. I still vividly remember when I first saw one in France in 1982 at the age of 9. It's hoop-hoop-hoop call is one of the most charismatic sounds of the Mediterranean spring for me.

E

 

Katy Penland

Well-known member

• Jul 28, 2004

• #7

Grousemore said:

Nice one,Katy,always an enjoyable bird...wondered where you'd been,you've missed a lot of ID Threads!

Click to expand...

LOL, thanks Trevor -- and all of you -- I missed BF a lot while gone. I had so little time outside the meetings, one night of which ran 'til 1 a.m., that birding had to take a back seat to the whale stuff for those two weeks (Intl Whaling Commission). Next year's IWC takes place in Ulsan, Korea, where there's a huge nature reserve (Saemangeum) not too far away, and I can't wait to go for a day or two of birding then, something I've never done in Asia. And it'll be in May, not July, so might even snag a few migrants. But I don't wanna jinx meself, so I'll just hold that thought 'til then.

It's gonna be awhile before the sight of that unexpected hoopoe gets displaced by something even more wonderful. And you're right, Andrew, my friend, Heather, who'd been rather disdainful of my turning my eyes away from 6th C. B.C. ruins to look at whatever was flying by, was MOST impressed. I think non-birders sometimes look at anything with feathers as generic LBJs, so for her to see something that looks so exotically different from anything we have in the US really gave her an appreciation for MY appreciation of birds.

Wish it had been calling. I'd've loved to hear what it sounds like, Edward. But I'm ecstatic over seeing one "on the hoof."

 

scampo

Steve Campsall

• Jul 28, 2004

• #8

Let's hope the hoopoes of this world manage to survive at least as long as those ruins will, then, Katy? BTW how do you pronounce the word "hoopoe", I wonder?

 

Talons

London Birder

• Jul 28, 2004

• #9

I would say the most common pronunciation is 'hup-oo'.

 

B

Bluetail

Senior Moment

• Jul 28, 2004

• #10

scampo said:

BTW how do you pronounce the word "hoopoe", I wonder?

Click to expand...

There's no general agreement. Some say "Hoo poo", others "Hoo poh". Being an onomatopoeic name I suppose the first is theoretically correct.

 

scampo

Steve Campsall

• Jul 28, 2004

• #11

I say "hoop-oh" myself but was once told it is "hoop-oo".

BTW, Jason - I thought of you while on hols. On a rare rainy day we watched a programme about the restored organ at the Albert Hall. What a beast! Wouldn't you like to play that, eh?

 

Vectis Birder

Itchy feet

• Jul 28, 2004

• #12

I have never seen a Hoopoe, but would love to.

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 28, 2004

• #13

scampo said:

Let's hope the hoopoes of this world manage to survive at least as long as those ruins will, then, Katy? BTW how do you pronounce the word "hoopoe", I wonder?

Click to expand...

I've never heard anything but "hoo-poo" but there again I don't get to hear native English speakers talk about birds much!

To hear them Katy, just rent any movie that takes place in southern Europe in spring or summer, preferrably Spain, and listen. hoop-hoop-hoop in rapid succession!

It's onomatopoeic name is not shared in the Nordic languages where it's called "herfugl" or some variant which means "army bird." It was supposed to be seen before battles. A rather negative connotation for such a bird!

Nice Icelandic bird on your avatar, Talon, by the way.


E

 

Katy Penland

Well-known member

• Jul 29, 2004

• #14

scampo said:

Let's hope the hoopoes of this world manage to survive at least as long as those ruins will, then, Katy? BTW how do you pronounce the word "hoopoe", I wonder?

Click to expand...

Never having heard it pronounced, only seen it written, I just assumed as a couple others here have, that it's "hoo-poh." But not knowing the name's derivation, I'm clueless. Bryde's whale is another of those that is said a number of different ways. In the US, you'd think it would be pronounced "bride's." I've heard it also pronounced "bride-ees." But from what I've been told, it's named after a South African scientist who first described it, and his name is pronounced "broo-duh", or in the possessive, "broo-duhs" (with the "s" as in "hiss" not as a "z"). Hence, it's easy for me to be persuaded to call a hoopoe "hoo-poo" or "hoo-poh" or even "hoop-oh-ee". However it's called, it's still a gorgeous bird.

Edward said:

To hear them Katy, just rent any movie that takes place in southern Europe in spring or summer, preferrably Spain, and listen. hoop-hoop-hoop in rapid succession!

Click to expand...

Really? Any suggestions for specific movies?

Edward said:

It's onomatopoeic name is not shared in the Nordic languages where it's called "herfugl" or some variant which means "army bird." It was supposed to be seen before battles. A rather negative connotation for such a bird!

Click to expand...

Edward, you are a walking encyclopedia. Do you know the origin of this "army bird" connotation? E.g., which cultures and from what time period?

 

scampo

Steve Campsall

• Jul 29, 2004

• #15

"To hear them Katy, just rent any movie that takes place in southern Europe in spring or summer, preferrably Spain, and listen. hoop-hoop-hoop in rapid succession!"

Really? Any suggestions for specific movies?...

El Hoopoe's Revenge, maybe? Didn't make general release but might be found in the more specialist DVD rental shops.

 

Edward

Umimmak

• Jul 29, 2004

• #16

OK Katy I may have been exaggerating a bit by saying rent any movie but I have heard it a few times in films but I'm afraid none spring to mind right now. Typical!

As for the origin of "army bird" then I'm not quite sure but I'd say the Greeks were good candidates. Its Icelandic name herfugl is definitely a loan from Danish hærfugl because it's an extremely rare vagrant to Iceland so unlikely that the Vikings ever saw lava fields dotted with Hoopoes before they decided to down a few berserker mushrooms and unsheath the broadsword.

There's a wonderful scene in Austrian novelist Christoph Ransmayr's The Last World, which is based on Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which one of the characters is transformed into a Hoopoe. I've been rereading Ovid to try and find this scene but can't.

Anyway here's an interesting page on Hoopoes from Don Roberson's brilliant world birding site.
http://montereybay.com/creagrus/hoopoes.html

E