Wood hoopoe

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Wood hoopoes
Green Wood Hoopoe, Phoeniculus purpureus, at Marakele National Park, Limpopo, South Africa (16340842701).jpg
Green wood hoopoe (Phoeniculus purpureus) at Marakele National Park, South Africa
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Bucerotiformes
Family: Phoeniculidae
Bonaparte, 1831
Genera

The wood hoopoes or scimitarbills are a small African family, Phoeniculidae, of near passerine birds. They live south of the Sahara Desert and are not migratory. While the family is now restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa, fossil evidence shows that it once had a larger distribution. Fossils attributed to this family have been found in Miocene rocks in Germany. [1]

Contents

The wood hoopoes are related to the kingfishers, the rollers, and the hoopoe, forming a clade with this last according to Hackett et al. (2008). [2] A close relationship between the hoopoe and the wood hoopoes is also supported by the shared and unique nature of their stapes. [3] The wood hoopoes most resemble the true hoopoes with their long down-curved bills and short rounded wings. According to genetic studies, the two genera, Phoeniculus and Rhinopomastus , appear to have diverged about ten million years ago, so some systematists treat them as separate subfamilies or even separate families. [4]

Description

The wood hoopoes are a morphologically distinct group, unlikely to be mistaken for any other. [5] These species are medium-sized (23–46 centimetres or 9–18 inches long, much of which is the tail). [4] They have metallic plumage, often blue, green or purple, and lack a crest. [6] The sexes are similar in all but two species, the forest wood hoopoe and the common scimitarbill. [7] Their bills are either red or black, although young red-billed species also have black bills and bill colour is correlated with age. The legs are scarlet or black, short, with thick tarsi. They climb tree trunks in the manner of a woodpecker, and when feeding on the ground they hop rather than walking like the true hoopoe. [5] Their tails are long and strongly graduated (the central feathers are the longest), and marked conspicuously with white, as are their wings. [4] [7]

Range and behaviour

Common scimitarbill Common Scimitar-bill 01.jpg
Common scimitarbill

These are birds of open woodland, savannah, or thornbrush, and are mainly arboreal. They require large trees both for feeding on as well as to provide hollows for nesting and nocturnal roosting. Two species are found exclusively in rainforest, the forest wood hoopoe and the white-headed wood hoopoe. All the other species are found in more open woodland and bush. [5]

They feed on arthropods, especially insects, which they find by probing with their bills in rotten wood and in crevices in bark. [7] They nest in unlined tree holes, laying two to four eggs, which are blue, grey, or olive, and unmarked in most species. [4]

Hoopoes hunt for prey primarily on the ground as they use their tongue-like beaks to pick up insects on the soil or grass. The Hoopoe's tongue occupy 2/3 length of the beak. [8]

Species

There are eight species.

Family: Phoeniculidae

ImageGenusLiving Species
Green Woodhoopoe RWD7.jpg Phoeniculus Jarocki, 1821
Flickr - Rainbirder - Common Scimitarbill (Rhinopomastus cyanomelas).jpg Rhinopomastus Jardine, 1828

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoopoe</span> Monotypic family of birds

Hoopoes are colourful birds found across Africa, Asia, and Europe, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers which can be raised or lowered at will. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all of the extant species were lumped as a single species—Upupa epops. In fact, some taxonomists still consider all three species conspecific. Some authorities also keep the African and Eurasian hoopoe together but split the Madagascar hoopoe. The Eurasian hoopoe is common in its range and has a large population, so it is evaluated as Least Concern on The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, their numbers are declining in Western Europe. Conversely, the hoopoe has been increasing in numbers at the tip of the South Sinai, Sharm el-Sheikh. There are dozens of nesting pairs that remain resident all year round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodpecker</span> Family of birds (Picidae)

Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green wood hoopoe</span> Species of bird

The green wood hoopoe 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bucerotiformes</span> Order of birds

Bucerotiformes is an order of birds that contains the hornbills, ground hornbills, hoopoes and wood hoopoes. These birds were previously classified as members of Coraciiformes. The clade is distributed in Africa, Asia, Europe and Melanesia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scimitarbill</span> Genus of birds

Scimitarbills are three species of African bird belonging to the genus Rhinopomastus. They are often classified in the woodhoopoe family, Phoeniculidae; however, genetic studies show that they diverged from the true woodhoopoes about 10 million years ago and so they are sometimes placed in a family of their own, the Rhinopomastidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White-headed wood hoopoe</span> Species of bird

The white-headed wood hoopoe is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae.

<i>Phoeniculus</i> Genus of birds

Phoeniculus is a genus of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. They are restricted to sub-Saharan Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-billed wood hoopoe</span> Species of bird

The black-billed wood hoopoe is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. It is native to eastern Africa where it is found in wooded and scrubby areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black scimitarbill</span> Species of bird

The black scimitarbill, also known as the black wood hoopoe, is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abyssinian scimitarbill</span> Species of bird

The Abyssinian scimitarbill is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. The term Abyssinia, is an old name for the region of Ethiopia, and scimitar refers to a curved sword, which its bill resembles. It is found in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. The bird is non migratory, diurnal, and terrestrial. Their nests are sometimes parasitized by the greater honeyguide which are favored by some because they can guide to beehives.

<i>Celeus</i> (bird) Genus of birds

Celeus is a genus of bird in the woodpecker family, Picidae, found in tropical and subtropical forests and woodlands of Central and South America. The genus contains 13 extant species. One, Kaempfer's woodpecker, was believed to be extinct until a specimen was caught in 2006.

References

  1. Mayr, Gerald (2000). "Tiny Hoopoe-Like Birds from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Germany)". Auk. 117 (4): 964–970. doi: 10.1642/0004-8038(2000)117[0964:THLBFT]2.0.CO;2 .
  2. Hackett, Shannon J.; Kimball, RT; Reddy, S; et al. (2008). "A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History". Science. 320 (5884): 1763–8. Bibcode:2008Sci...320.1763H. doi:10.1126/science.1157704. PMID   18583609. S2CID   6472805.
  3. Feduccia, Alan (1975). "The Bony Stapes in the Upupidae and Phoeniculidae: Evidence for Common Ancestry" (PDF). The Wilson Bulletin. 87 (3): 416–417.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Fry, C. Hilary (2003). "Wood-hoopoes" . In Perrins, Christopher (ed.). The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Firefly Books. pp.  383. ISBN   1-55297-777-3.
  5. 1 2 3 Ligon, D (2001). "Family Phoeniculidae (Woodhoopoes)". In Josep, del Hoyo; Andrew, Elliott; Sargatal, Jordivdg (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 6, Mousebirds to Hornbills. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. pp.  412–427. ISBN   84-87334-30-X.
  6. Forshaw, Joseph (1991). Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 148–149. ISBN   1-85391-186-0.
  7. 1 2 3 Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1999). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Princeton University Press. p. 395. ISBN   0691010218.
  8. El-Bakary, Neveen (2011). ""Surface Morphology of the Tongue of the Hoopoe (Upupa Epops)"". Journal of American Science . 7 (1).