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Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Green Wood-hoopoe

While visiting the family in the Drakensberg this weekend, I spotted several birds. However, I only managed to get good images of two...

On Sunday morning Grant called me to photograph a  Wood-hoopoe sitting on top of a pole. At first I had the manual setting on my camera overexposed but have managed to edit the images for posting. 
Green Wood-hoopoe 
The Wood-hoopoe swung around and with head down and probed for insects in the holes in the wood. Here the barred tail is also clearly visible 
The key distinguishing feature on the Green Wood-hoopoe 
is the iridescent sheen on its neck and back  

The Green Wood-hoopoe is found in woodland and riverine forests

 Food is insects, (especially larvae) centipedes, geckos, frogs and they eat some fruits and nectar. Although the Green Wood-hoopoe is seen solitary as above, they normally are in groups of between 2 - 14 but averaging 3-4. Their calls in unison are a distinctive cackling chorus; likened to the laughter of women and performed by all members of the group. 

Their breeding habits are interesting: they're monogamous and co-operative. The breeding pair is assisted by the rest of the group members. Usually they nest in natural tree cavaties; old woodpecker and barbet nests are used occasionally. The incubation period is 17-18 days and done by the female only. The male and the rest of the group members feed the female and chicks during the nestling and post-nestling period. 

Later on in the week, I'll post the second good sighting we had. 

I'm linking to Wild Bird Wednesday here





3 comments:

  1. Yes I saw this bird when I was in S.A but you got better shots of it. Its colours are beautiful

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  2. Hello!:) I have never even heard of this beauty before. I have only seen the Hoopoe, which is a frequent visiter. What a lovely colour, the Green Wood Hoopoe is, and you took a really good photo of it.

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  3. this means our world could take lessons from these birds.. not only is that green sheen amazing, so is that long orange bill that is able to dig deep for food.

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