The black-billed wood hoopoe (''Phoeniculus somaliensis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Phoeniculidae The wood hoopoes or scimitarbills are a small African family, Phoeniculidae, of near passerine birds. They live south of the Sahara Desert and are not migratory. While the family is now restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa, fossil evidence shows th ...

. It is native to eastern Africa where it is found in wooded and scrubby areas.

Description

The black-billed wood hoopoe is very similar to the

green wood hoopoe The green wood hoopoe (''Phoeniculus purpureus'') is a large, up to long tropical bird native to Africa. It is a member of the family Phoeniculidae, the wood hoopoes, and was formerly known as the red-billed wood hoopoe. Taxonomy In 1784 the En ...

(''Phoeniculus purpureus'') in appearance, but lacks the greenish gloss on the head and mantle and has a black beak rather than a red one, though there is sometimes a reddish tinge at the base of the beak. The sexes are similar and the adult bird is about long. The plumage is generally black with a bluish or purplish gloss, and a row of white spots on the flight feathers giving a white bar on the wings in flight. The long, graduated tail has white spots at the edge.

Distribution and habitat

It is found in eastern Africa, its range including

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

at altitudes of up to about . It is a bird of woodland, scrubby areas, forest edges, and gallery forests, and among large trees such as ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

s'' growing in wadis.

Ecology

The black-billed wood hoopoe feeds on arthropods, millipedes, beetles and other invertebrates, foraging on trunks and branches by creeping along the bark, sometimes upside-down, and probing into crevices. It breeds in holes in trees.

Status

The black-billed wood hoopoe is a common bird and has a very wide range. Its population trend has not been quantified but it may be decreasing because the large trees in which it nests are becoming more scarce as a result of being harvested. No other particular threats to this bird are known and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q941497 black-billed wood hoopoe Birds of the Horn of Africa black-billed wood hoopoe Taxonomy articles created by Polbot