In this painting I have depicted this beautiful bird that we don’t see (anymore) in the Netherlands, the Eurasian hoopoe (Upupa epops). With a lot of luck we can sometimes see it as a migrant in March-May and August-October, it hibernates in Africa. It may owe its name to the courtship call, which is clearly a kind of Hoop-Hoop-Hoop. But it could also come from the French huppée (crest). In Germany he is called the wedehoppe because he jumps, hops, when searching for his food.

The beautiful crest is used as a means of communication of all kinds of emotions. For example when he is excited, the crest will completely erect.

Fun fact:

The birds are known to be huge stinkers! On the one hand because they do not like to clean up: they leave manure and food scraps in their nest (usually a tree cavity or a hole in a wall), on the other hand because the female and the young have a gland near their tail that secretes a very smelly liquid (smelling like rotting flesh). They smear it in their wings. The youngsters can also spray their faeces towards an intruder when they are a bit older. The faeces then will remain in the nest.

Reference photos: Delyth Williams from  Pixabay and Rajukhan Pathan from Pexels

Cotman watercolours tubes, Faber Castel Polychromos & Pastel pencils on Saunders Waterford 300gsm 310×230 Cotton Satiné High White paper