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Eurasian hoopoe
Upupa epops
15.2206, 32.5195
Field Notes
Description:
Unmistakable and striking pigeon-sized bird. Black and white striped, broad and rounded wings; sandy-buff chest, neck and back. It shows a long, narrow and scimitar-like curved bill, and a distinctive buffy-pink crest with black tips. This crest is usually kept folded, except briefly when landing, otherwise is unfolded rarely. Tail is broad, black with a white band.
Habitat:
Eurasian hoopoe is present in all Sahel belt, thriving in grasslands and savannah. Here, observed on several occasions during that weekend in our camping site near Jebel Aulia; on banks of White Nile and in wooded savannah.
Notes:
For my family, my kids, wife and myself, this bird was always linked to Africa - and it is intimately named "Kirikou" - after a famous set of West African stories adapted to children books which served as a basis for a couple of animated (and beautiful) films. In one of the movies, the first one, Kirikou, (just born and smaller than the bird then) the hero, is famously attacked by this bird - a scene that marked my sons pretty much. So, even now, when they are both well grown up, every time they see this bird, they run back to me whispering: "Dad, dad, come quickly, bring a camera, Kirikou is around..."
and our Kirikou is the only bird that still can excite them...
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