What sort of creature is a hoopoe?
Hoopoe Hoopoe Hoopoes () are colourful birds found across Afro-Eurasia, notable for their distinctive "crown" of feathers. Three living and one extinct species are recognized, though for many years all were lumped as a single species—"Upupa epops". "Upupa" and "epops" are respectively the Latin and Ancient Greek names for the hoopoe; both, like the English name, are onomatopoeic forms which imitate the cry of the bird. The hoopoe was classified in the clade Coraciiformes, which also includes kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. A close relationship between the hoopoe and the wood hoopoes is also supported by the shared and unique nature of
Hoopoe the hoopoe has been split into three separate species: the Eurasian hoopoe, Madagascan hoopoe and the resident African hoopoe. One accepted separate species, the Saint Helena hoopoe, lived on the island of St Helena but became extinct in the 16th century, presumably due to introduced species. The genus "Upupa" was created by Linnaeus in his "Systema naturae" in 1758. It then included three other species with long curved bills: Formerly, the greater hoopoe-lark was also considered to also be a member of this genus (as "Upupa alaudipes"). Hoopoes are widespread in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar.