Vinson, who observed live hoopoe starlings when he lived on Réunion, described the crest as flexible, disunited and forward-curled barbs of various lengths, highest in the centre, and able to be erected at will. He compared the bird's crest to that of a cockatoo and to the tail feathers of a bird-of-paradise. Most mounted specimens have an erect crest, indicating its natural position. The only illustration of the hoopoe starling now thought to have been made from life was drawn by French artist Paul Philippe Sauguin de Jossigny during the early 1770s. Jossigny instructed engravers under the drawing that for accuracy, they should depict the crest angled forward from the head (not straight up). Hume believes that Martinet did this when he made the type illustration, and it was derivative of Jossigny's image rather than a life drawing. Jossigny also made the only known life drawing of the now-extinct Newton's parakeet ("Psittacula exsul") after a specimen sent to him from Rodrigues to Mauritius, so this is perhaps also where he drew the hoopoe starling. Murie suggested that only the illustrations by Martinet and Jacques Barraband were "original", since he was unaware of Jossigny's drawing, but noted a crudeness and stiffness in them which made neither appear lifelike.