On one of my Christmas cards, in the margin of an early 15th-century book of hours, there was a tiny, beautifully painted picture of a hoopoe. The artist must have known the bird well. Perhaps he came from the South of France. Anyway, there this bird was, with its bright orange body, its barred wings and its cheeky, black-and-white crest, alongside some goldfinches painted equally accurately, while above them the kings paid homage to Jesus.
Amazingly enough, a hoopoe was seen in a garden at Brighstone on the Isle of Wight exactly a week before Christmas Day. They are uncommon migrants in Britain. Those that come are generally birds that have migrated in spring from Central Africa to the countries bordering the Mediterranean, and have overshot the mark and found themselves here. One or two are sometimes seen here as early as February. However, the Christmas bird at Brighstone was probably a southbound migrant that had flown in the wrong direction in autumn and had settled here for the winter. I wonder if it is alive now?
Hoopoes have nested in Britain a few times, but this requires a male and a female to meet here, something that is not likely to happen often. The first hoopoe I saw was in England. I was 16 and had gone to a Surrey reservoir in the hope of adding another duck to my list. I did better when I saw this exotic spectacle sitting in a bush beside the reservoir.
They like poking about for food on golf courses and large lawns, where the turf is smooth. They have been called a bird of vicarage gardens. When they fly up, they present another remarkable spectacle, for they open and close their wings as they fly, and the black-and-white bars alternately appear and vanish.
They have a loud “hoop-hoop” song, with pure notes, which is very distinctive, and every time they utter it they bow and touch their breast with their beak. It has given the bird its name. Their curious Latin name, Upupa epops, echoes the song in all its words. But I like best an old English name, the whoopee, which is absolutely right for this festive-looking bird.