Hoopoes | Upupidae

Hoppen | Abubillas

A long, thin, slightly downcurved bill is driven into the soil to the hilt; the bird can force the two halves apart while they are still buried, to seize a beetle grub or a mole cricket, working at the same time with strong, short-clawed feet. The crest is a row of black-tipped feathers that can be raised into a fan and otherwise lies flat along the head. The broad rounded wings are boldly barred black and white and give an undulating, flopping flight that suggests a large butterfly more than a bird. Breeding is in an unlined cavity; the sitting female and the young give off a foul liquid from the preen gland that smells of rotting meat, and the young also squirt their droppings at an intruder.