Common hoopoe - Upupa epops

Common Name :	Common hoopoe.
Binomial Name :	Upupa epops
Family :	Upupidae
Bengali Name :	Mohon chura (মোহনচূড়া পাখি), Hudhud (হুদহুদ পাখি).
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Common hoopoe (or simply Hoopoe) is one of the beautiful birds from the many from our Bangladesh. We have several beautiful Bengali names for this bard such as Mohon chura, Hudhud, Sholayman (সোলায়মান পাখি), etc. Binomial name of the bird is Upupa epops and it belongs to the family Upupidae. This is a national bird of Israel. But this bird is native to the Asia, Europe, and Africa. In Bangladesh this bird is seen frequently, but their count is decreasing for the habit loss.

Common hoopoe (Upupa epops) is a normal sized bird having brownish (or biscuit color) upper portion. The wings and tails are having the stripes of black and white (with a touch of brown). The black stripes from the back of the wing look like the 'V' alphabet of English letter. The bird has two main distinctive organs. One is the crest at the top of the head that composes in brown with black stripes. Other one is the noticeably long thin bill of the bird that helps it to pull out the insects from deep inside the hole. Both sexes of the bird are similar in shape and look. Call of the bird is Hu-po--Hu-po which justifies why the name is Hoopoe.

Common hoopoe (Upupa epops) is mostly seen foraging around the ground having grasses. It doesn't forage around the trees frequently. They are insectivore and pick the invertebrates from the ground. They mainly forage alone. The long slender bill of the bird helps it to pick out the insects from their nest inside the ground. For this behavior people also call this as 'Kath kurali' in Bangla.

Common hoopoe (Upupa epops) makes the nest at the tree hole or at buildings. The nest doesn't look that much attractive and they even do not bother to show any architectural skill while building the nest. The female mainly incubates the eggs and during that time the male Hoopoe uses to feed the female. Such a romantic pair!

This bird is mentioned in both the Holy Quaran and Bible. As per the Holy Quarn the prophet Sulayman had a pet Hoopoe that used to collect messages for the prophet. This is why this bird is also known as 'Solayman pakhi' in our Bangladesh, means the bird of Sulayman.

Photos of Common hoopoe (Upupa epops) were taken from the following locations of Bangladesh:
1) December 2014: Kukri-mukri, Bhola.
2) March 2015: Sector-18, Uttara, Dhaka.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icbird.blogspot.com/