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The hoopoe (hudhud in Arabic) looks like a ground dwelling woodpecker, a bit reminiscent of the roadrunner of the southwest United States. Their images are prominent in wall paintings in the old Egyptian tombs. It doesn't fly far and spends most of the time on the ground probing the soil for insects. Their plumage is a chestnut red, black and white, quite striking. This young one was found by a neighbour's dog, probably having fallen from a nest in a hole in a wall or tree. It's living in the aviary these days and being handfed on raw chicken breast. I sort of doubt that it will be able to be released because it's pretty well accustomed to getting food from humans but I have three large flight cages where chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, doves, pigeons and some parrots live in relative harmony. And it does seem to like the chicken breast....
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Pharaoh's Birds
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7 comments:
A beautiful bird - sounds like you've got a new pet for life.
That is quite a headset on that bird! What kind of sound does it make?
Nice, your own hudhud! Good of you to rescue it.
The hoopoe was recently voted our national bird-- http://jerusalemhillsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/05/hoopoe-our-national-bird.html
I've read that they sort of speak their name, a call that sounds like Hoop-hoop. But I'm not sure that I've ever heard it. The young ones learning to hunt bugs in the lawn with their parents make a rather high pitched squeak...definitely not what I've read about.
A bird I've always wanted to photograph. Wonderful image and info.
wild pic. So glad I found your site.
I saw one of those birds in Montenegro at Lake Skadar a few weeks ago. I know it used to be famous - if not frequent - in Germany: there is a folk song that mentions it. It is called Wiedehopf in German.
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