The Crested Eurasian Hoopoe

The Eurasian hoopoe calls out a soft oop-oop-oop.

Eurasian hoopoes are cinnamon coloured birds native to Europe, Asia and Africa.

Adult Eurasian hoopoes measure 25 to 32 centimetres long.

Wingspans reach 44 to 48 centimetres across broad rounded wings.

The long narrow bill is black with a fawn base.

Most European birds migrate south at night for winter.

One migrating hoopoe was recorded at about 6,400 metres altitude.

Solitary foragers stride over bare ground hunting insects.

Nesting happens inside holes in trees, walls or nestboxes.

Carl Linnaeus formally described the Eurasian hoopoe in 1758.

Israel chose the hoopoe as national bird in May 2008.

A hoopoe leads the birds in a Persian poem.