Green wood hoopoe


The green wood hoopoe is a large, up to 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.

Taxonomy

In 1784 the English illustrator John Frederick Miller included a hand-coloured plate of the green wood hoopoe in his Icones animalium et plantarum. He coined the binomial name Promerops purpureus and mistakenly specified the type locality as eastern India. The green wood hoopoe is now one of five species placed in the genus Phoeniculus that was introduced in 1821 by the Polish zoologist Feliks Paweł Jarocki.
Six subspecies are recognised:P. p. senegalensis – south Senegal to south GhanaP. p. guineensis – north Senegal and Gambia to Chad and Central African RepublicP. p. niloticus – Sudan to west Ethiopia and northeast DR CongoP. p. marwitzi – east Uganda and Kenya to east South AfricaP. p. angolensis – Angola and west Zambia to northeast Namibia and north BotswanaP. p. purpureus – central, southwest South Africa
The green wood hoopoe is sometimes considered as conspecific with the black-billed wood hoopoe and the violet wood hoopoe.

Description

This abundant species is a metallic dark green, with a purple back and very long diamond-shaped purple tail. Distinctive white markings on the wings and white chevrons on the tail edges make it easily identifiable, as does its long, thin, curved red bill. Sexes are similar, but immatures have a black bill.
It advertises its presence with its loud kuk-uk-uk-uk-uk call and other vocalisations.

Behaviour and ecology

Food and foraging

The green wood hoopoe is an insect-eating species. It feeds mainly on the ground, at termite mounds, or on tree trunks, and forms flocks outside the breeding season. Its specialised claws enable it to cling easily to the underside of branches while closely inspecting the bark for insects.

Breeding

The green wood hoopoe is a cooperative breeder and common resident in the forests, woodlands and suburban gardens of most of sub-Saharan Africa. It is found in groups of up to a dozen or so birds with only one breeding pair. The breeding female lays two to four blue eggs in a natural tree hole or old barbet nest and incubates them for about 18 days. On hatching, she and the nestlings are fed by the rest of the group, even after they have fledged and left the nest hole. The group is fearless in defence of the nestlings against intruders. This species is parasitised by the greater and lesser honeyguide.

Status

Widespread and common throughout its large range, the green wood hoopoe is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.