Sunning Hoopoe
Acrylic on
illustration board
8" x 10"
| The single
species of hoopoe (Upupa epops) ranges throughout most
of Eurasia and Africa. It is unmistakeable with its pinkish crested
head and boldly banded black and white body, these features varying
somewhat among the nine or so races. Some taxonomists consider
the sub-Saharan birds and the Madagascan ones to constitute two
seperate species. Hoopoes feed mostly on caterpillars and other
insects, which are normally taken while the birds walk about
on the ground. Like their relatives the hornbills, these birds
are cavity nesters, laying two to nine eggs in a hole in a tree,
cutbank, termite mound or building. |
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