The wood hoopoes or scimitarbills are a small

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n family, Phoeniculidae, of near passerine

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s. They live south of the Sahara Desert and are not migratory. While the family is now restricted to

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

evidence shows that it once had a larger distribution. Fossils attributed to this family have been found in

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

rocks in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The wood hoopoes are related to the kingfishers, the

roller Roller may refer to: Birds *Roller, a bird of the family Coraciidae * Roller (pigeon), a domesticated breed or variety of pigeon Devices * Roller (agricultural tool), a non-powered tool for flattening ground * Road roller, a vehicle for compa ...

s, and the hoopoe, forming a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

with this last according to Hackett ''et al.'' (2008). A close relationship between the hoopoe and the wood hoopoes is also supported by the shared and unique nature of their stapes. The wood hoopoes most resemble the true hoopoes with their long down-curved bills and short rounded wings. According to genetic studies, the two genera, ''

Phoeniculus ''Phoeniculus'' is a genus of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. They are restricted to sub-Saharan Africa. The genus contains the following species: Members of this genus have long, slightly down-curved, pointed bills with stout bases. Most ...

'' and ''

Rhinopomastus Scimitarbills (also spelt scimitar-bills) are three species of African bird belonging to the genus ''Rhinopomastus''. They are often classified in the woodhoopoe family, Phoeniculidae; however, genetic studies show that they diverged from the tru ...

'', appear to have diverged about ten million years ago, so some systematists treat them as separate

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

or even separate

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

Description

The wood hoopoes are a morphologically distinct group, unlikely to be mistaken for any other. These

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

are medium-sized ( long, much of which is the tail). They have metallic

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

, often blue, green or purple, and lack a crest. The sexes are similar in all but two species, the

forest wood hoopoe The forest wood hoopoe (''Phoeniculus castaneiceps'') is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liber ...

and the

common scimitarbill The common scimitarbill (''Rhinopomastus cyanomelas'') is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, So ...

. Their bills are either red or black, although young red-billed species also have black bills and bill colour is correlated with age. The legs are scarlet or black, short, with thick tarsi. They climb tree trunks in the manner of a woodpecker, and when feeding on the ground they hop rather than walking like the true hoopoe. Their tails are long and strongly graduated (the central feathers are the longest), and marked conspicuously with white, as are their wings.

Range and behaviour

These are birds of open woodland, savannah, or thornbrush, and are mainly arboreal. They require large trees both for feeding on as well as to provide hollows for nesting and nocturnal roosting. Two species are found exclusively in rainforest, the forest wood hoopoe and the

white-headed wood hoopoe The white-headed wood hoopoe (''Phoeniculus bollei'') is a species of bird in the family Phoeniculidae. Etymology The bird's scientific species name ''bollei'' honors Carl August Bolle (1821-1909), a German naturalist and collector. Subspecie ...

. All the other species are found in more open woodland and bush. They feed on arthropods, especially insects, which they find by probing with their bills in rotten wood and in crevices in bark. They nest in unlined tree holes, laying two to four eggs, which are blue, grey, or olive, and unmarked in most species.

Species

There are eight species. Family: Phoeniculidae

References

External links

Wood hoopoe videos
on The Cornell Lab of Ornithology - Macaulay Library {{Taxonbar, from=Q752529 * Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Afrotropics Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte