Birds Thru My Eyes : MALAYSIA: Common Hoopoe

Sunday, 23 April 2017

Common Hoopoe

Order - Bucerotiformes
Family - Upupidae (Hoopoes)

Common Hoopoe

Upupa epops

戴胜 (dài-shèng)

Malay : Hudhud Biasa

Japanese : ヤツガシラ (yatsu-gashira)

Kanji 日語漢字 : 戴勝

  Extent of Occurrence (resident/breeding) : 104,000,000km²
  Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding) : 78,300,000km²
  Migratory Status : Full Migrant
  Breeding Endemic : No

Size : 19–32 cm; 38–80 g; Wingspan 42–48 cm

Subspecies (8) and Distribution

EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Common Hoopoe (Eurasian) Upupa epops [epops Group]

Upupa epops epops (Linnaeus, 1758, Europe = Sweden)
– Breeds from northwestern Africa (east to Libya), Canary Islands, and central and southern Europe, then south to Jordan and Israel (as far south as the northern Negev Desert), and east to south-central Russia (Ob–Yenisey watershed), northwestern China (Xinjiang), and northwestern India; this is probably the subspecies breeding in Arabia. European breeders “winter” largely in the Iberian Peninsula, northwest coastal Africa, and across the Sahel. The non-breeding range also stretches from the Nile River Valley, Israel, and Lebanon east across Arabia and into India, but the eastern boundary of the non-breeding range is not well known (eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024).
Upupa epops saturata (Lönnberg, 1909, Kjachta, southern Transbaicalia, Russia)
– South-central Russia (east of the Yenisey River), east to Russian Far East, Korean Peninsula, and occasionally in Japan; south to central China and Tibet. Northern populations are migratory.

Identification :
– Similar to nominate, but slightly grayer on mantle and darker below.

Upupa epops major (C. L. Brehm, 1855, Visits Egypt in winter)
– Resident in Egypt, northern Sudan and eastern Chad (Ennedi).

Identification :
– Similar to nominate subspecies, but has grayer upperparts, less white on the secondaries, and a more heavily streaked belly; also, its bill is longer overall and thicker at the base.

Upupa epops ceylonensis (Reichenbach, 1853, Ceylon)
– Resident (at least mostly) in the plains of Pakistan and northern India south to Sri Lanka.

Identification :
– Smaller and shorter-crested than Upupa epops longirostris.

Upupa epops longirostris (Jerdon, 1862, Burma)
– Resident (or largely so) in Assam and Bangladesh east to southern China, and south through most of Southeast Asia, though only to the northern Thai-Malay Peninsula.

Identification :
– Apparently, very similar to nominate subspecies, but lacks white subterminal bands on crest feathers.

EBIRD GROUP (POLYTYPIC)

Common Hoopoe (Central African) Upupa epops senegalensis/waibeli

Upupa epops senegalensis (Swainson, 1837, Senegal)
– Resident from Mauritania to Sierra Leone east through southern Algeria (Ahaggar) and Chad to Ethiopia and Somalia; this may be the subspecies breeding in Yemen and extreme southwestern Saudi Arabia, and it is a rare breeder in Liberia. U. e. senegalensis is probably a partial migrant, with some birds moving as far south as southern Cameroon and southern Somalia.

Identification :
– Compared to the nominate subspecies, senegalensis is slightly darker, with a more cinnamon-rufous head and more white on the secondaries, which creates large white patches.

Upupa epops waibeli (Reichenow, 1913, Bemugu, Cameroon)
– Resident in Cameroon, southern Chad and northern Democratic Republic of Congo east to Uganda and northern Kenya. Probably a partial migrant south to equatorial Uganda and Kenya.

Identification :
– Upupa epops waibeli is intermediate between senegalensis and africana, though it still has a white bar across the primaries.

EBIRD GROUP (MONOTYPIC)

Common Hoopoe (African) Upupa epops africana

Upupa epops africana (Bechstein, 1811, Congo to the Cape)
– Resident from Gabon and central Democratic Republic of Congo east to central Kenya and south to the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa; recorded also in Sudan.

Identification :
– Note that southern populations are paler than northern ones. Compared to the nominate subspecies, Upupa epops africana has more extensive white on the secondaries but lacks the white bar on the primaries; northern populations of africana are also more deeply colored than nominate epops. Unlike other subspecies, africana is distinctly sexually dimorphic, with the female having gray on the back and ear-coverts, and less white in the secondaries. This subspecies lacks the series of white subterminal spots on the crest feathers (best seen when the crest is fanned) of Upupa epops epops and some Upupa epops senegalensis/waibeli.

Distribution Map

Upupa epops ssp. longirostris Date : 27 May 2026 Location : No 51, Jalan Saujana Jaya, Taman Saujana Jaya, Assam Kumbang, Taiping, Daerah Larut, Matang & Selama, Perak