# The hoopoe bird came rapping at my chamber door **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553 "2016-01-29T05:44:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/1 "2016-01-29T05:44:55Z")
It was three years ago (:eek: \*) I first mentioned the pair of hoopoe birds that have taken up residence near our house, evidently loving my wife’s garden. They keep making nests in the same rain gutter at the corner of our house. (We’ve still never seen a young one – unless the hoopoes with us now are the children of the first pair), but we hear sounds like the new fledgling is getting ready to fly off and seek his fortune. We have a large mirror-like glass door. Recently a hoopoe bird began knocking on that door repeatedly with its long beak. (It came in when the door was opened and then had trouble finding its way back out.) The two loving birds are often seen together and I got worried when I didn’t see the other one – Was the bird rapping at our chamber door looking for its mate? I assumed it could see its reflection and figured it thought it saw another hoopoe bird. But then it started rapping on several other, non-reflective, windows. Eventually we were relieved to see two hoopoe birds together. (Maybe the bird was relieved too: After a few days the window rapping stopped.) I’ve never been a bird watcher, but these hoopoes are amazingly beautiful. I’m very pleased with the wonders of my wife’s garden. I’m thinking of starting an IMHO thread, _Septimus’ Political Manifesto_, but the only progress I’ve made on the OP is [QUOTE=septimus] If things get bad, I ask the Mods to move this thread to BBQ Pit. Or, depending on how it plays out, rename it “_Ask the idiot savant living isolated in an Asian jungle_.” [/QUOTE] Maybe this post is a compromise. 😛 (\* - Time flies? You can’t; they fly too quickly.) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/2 "2016-01-29T05:52:55Z")
Have you thought about bird silhouettes for the windows? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/3 "2016-01-29T05:58:13Z")
I had to look them up; I had never heard of the hoopoe before. I don’t even particularly like birds, and I think [they](https://abelmoir.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/birds-madagascar-poland-flight-hoopoe-new-hd-wallpaper.jpg) [are](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Botbotik.jpg) [truly](http://www.sakertour.com/hide-photography/gallery/hides/hoopoe-hide/1219/hoopoe.jpg) [beautiful](http://www.birdforum.net/opus/images/thumb/e/e9/Eurasian_Hoopoe.jpg/550px-Eurasian_Hoopoe.jpg) [creatures](http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00380/121280290_hoopoe_380847c.jpg)! ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/4 "2016-01-29T06:45:10Z")
Holey majoly, they are amazingly cute. I will have twelve my good man, have them delivered posthaste. I have a bird feeder that I love and I get cardinals and blue jays, which gets me so excited. We’ve had a woodpecker a few times. If a bird that cute happened I would faint. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/5 "2016-01-29T06:56:34Z")
I love hoopoes - I see them every now and then, and it’s always a special event. They’re also my country’s national bird. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/6 "2016-01-29T08:01:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I love hoopoes - I see them every now and then, and it’s always a special event. > > They’re also my country’s national bird. Oh gloat you gloater! We all have hoopoes! Oh look at us! Watch a squirrel and a bluejay fight over a peanut. And they all scramble when the feral cats end up in the backyard. i’ve learned the noises. I end up yelling at cats at five am. ---
**Author:** ![F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@F.Pu-du-he-pa-as](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.Pu-du-he-pa-as)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/7 "2016-01-29T14:26:49Z")
How adorable! I love hoopoes, too! The first time I ever encountered them was in Greece, and I was stunned by their beauty. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/8 "2016-01-29T14:51:56Z")
They have one of my favorite scientific names among birds: _Upupa epops_ (from the names in Latin and Greek). All the names are based on their [hooting calls.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4FqGpni-E) I have a silk painting of three Hoopoes I got in India in the middle of my living room wall. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/9 "2016-01-29T15:04:24Z")
Those birds are very pretty. Me, I live in Toronto. What I get rapping on my windows, are raccoons. Those little bastards have hands, and can open your windows if you aren’t careful - they certainly can get in your garbage. 😃 They have cute faces, though. As for their rapping - one scared the living shit outta me once doing that. I was reading late at night, and had a peanut butter sandwich on a plate in front of me, when I heard a rap-rap-rapping on the window beside me - I looked over, and saw what looked like a withered, black human child’s hand with long nails fumbling and pawing to open the window.:eek: My scream startled the creature, who was of course a raccoon. 😃 It was attracted by the sandwich, but hadn’t seen me. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/10 "2016-01-29T15:36:57Z")
Only dis ‘n’ nuttin’ moah. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/11 "2016-01-29T17:37:10Z")
There are a few species of birds that have a propensity for attacking their reflections. In North America, red Cardinals do it, as do their western cousins the Pyrrhuloxias. You are very lucky, in my opinion the Hoopoe may be the most beautiful bird in the world. The first one I saw was in Assam, India. Vivie memories of about a dozen of them cavorting acrobatically on the lawn of my hotel in Dubai. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/12 "2016-01-29T20:18:42Z")
I thought this was going to lead to a parody of Poe’s “The Raven”. “Quoth the hoopoe, ‘Nevermore’.” What would a hoopoe quoth? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/13 "2016-01-29T20:40:36Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I thought this was going to lead to a parody of Poe’s “The Raven”. > > “Quoth the hoopoe, ‘Nevermore’.” What would a hoopoe quoth? Judging by their appearance, something like “Me, I’m fabulous, baby!”. 😃 > [@](#): > > Look at my style, could it be more glam? > Lood at my look, can you say, hot damn? > Look, an’ at once, you know what I am: > Me, I’m fabulous, baby! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/14 "2016-01-31T04:27:45Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I thought this was going to lead to a parody of Poe’s “The Raven”. > > “Quoth the hoopoe, ‘Nevermore’.” What would a hoopoe quoth? The Hoopoe’s name is imitative. In many languages within its range, the name is something like Hoopoe, because that is what it quoth. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/15 "2016-01-31T10:23:47Z")
In Thai it’s called นกหัวขวาน, lit. ‘bird with axe-shaped head.’ I think the [pick-axe shape of the head when its crown is “furled”](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Botbotik.jpg) is much more distinctive than its sound. We very seldom hear the sound. ☹ A more proper name for the bird, e.g. as shown [at the Thai Wikipedia page](https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99) has an extra word set in the middle: นกกะรางหัวขวาน. If I plug that extra underlined word into Google translate by itself it shows ‘hoopoe’, but if I search for กะราง with Google I get hits on other birds, e.g. White-crested Laughingthrush. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/16 "2016-01-31T10:57:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I love hoopoes - I see them every now and then, and it’s always a special event. > > They’re also my country’s national bird. Delightful creatures, for sure – I’ve seen them in the Balkans. If I’m right, the hoopoe is biblically specified as on the Jewish forbidden-foods list. I believe that in said reference in the King James Bible, it’s erroneously called the “lapwing” – name of a British bird, the green plover (_Vanellus vanellus_). I reckon the King James’s makers can be forgiven – hoopoes are rarely seen in Britain. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/17 "2016-02-05T05:33:04Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > They keep making nests in the same rain gutter at the corner of our house. (We’ve still never seen a young one – unless the hoopoes with us now are the children of the first pair), but we hear sounds like the new fledgling is getting ready to fly off and seek his fortune. My wife just saw the baby hoopoe! He was peeking out, but ducked back when he saw my wife looking at him. The parent birds have a procedure for feeding their baby; one (the male?) goes and gets a grasshopper(?) and brings it to the nest where mama hoopoe stands guard. She takes the food out of papa’s mouth and feeds it to baby. What’s the reason for this division of labor? Is to reorient or inspect the food, or does mama just want all the baby-feeding peasure herself? (BTW, the nest is actually hidden under a half-broken roof tile adjacent to the rain gutter. The hoopoes have cleverly found a special spot relatively safe from weather and predators.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/18 "2016-02-05T11:29:26Z")
My in-laws had hoopoes nesting in a hole in a tree on their property, lovely birds. The ones I’ve seen in Saudi and Europe don’t seem as _bright_ orange as the ones here and in the rest of Africa. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/19 "2016-02-05T12:29:59Z")
[This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9dwyWVySMo) is what I imagine the hoopoes are like. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2018, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553/20 "2018-02-01T12:49:53Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > You are very lucky, in my opinion the Hoopoe may be the most beautiful bird in the world… I bump to celebrate the mundane and pointless fact that hoopoe birds, after at least five years, are _still_ our constant companions, still rapping on our windows, and using the same old nest to breed youngsters. (We’ve cut down trees that might have been used by predators to reach that nest.) I supposed our current hoopoes might be the children or grandchildren of the original homesteaders, but Google shows ten years as the lifespan of hoopoes in the wild. In my daydreams I’m [del]Jeff Bezos[/del] Walter Mitty, sailing the seven seas surrounded by [del]$5000-per-trick callgirls[/del] intellects and musicians. _But in my real life I get a slight frisson of joy just spotting our hoopoes_, or hearing them say Hello at our windows. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hoopoe-bird-came-rapping-at-my-chamber-door/744553.md?page=2)