The diet of the hoopoe includes many species considered by humans to be
pests, such as the pupae of the
processionary moth, a damaging forest pest which few other birds will eat because of its irritating hairs. For this reason, the species is afforded protection under the law in many countries. It also had a symbolic standing in
Minoan Crete. The Hoopoe, known as the (), also appears with
King Solomon in the
Quran in Surah 27 (The Ant): The connection of the hoopoe with Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in the Qur'anic tradition is mentioned in passing in
Rudyard Kipling's Just So story "
The Butterfly that Stamped". In the pre-Islamic
Vainakh religion of
Chechnya,
Ingushetia and
Dagestan, the hoopoe was sacred to the goddess
Tusholi and known as "Tusholi's hen". As her bird, it could be hunted only with the permission of the goddess's high priest for strictly medicinal purposes. In
Persia, hoopoes were seen as a symbol of virtue, and one was portrayed as a leader of the birds in the Persian book of poems
The Conference of the Birds ( by
Attar), though when the birds seek a king, the hoopoe points out that the
Simurgh is the king of the birds. Hoopoes were thought of as thieves across much of Europe, and harbingers of war in
Scandinavia. In
Estonian tradition, hoopoes are strongly connected with death and the
underworld; their song is believed to foreshadow death for many people or cattle. In medieval
ritual magic, the hoopoe was thought to be an evil bird. The
Munich Manual of Demonic Magic, a collection of magical spells compiled in Germany frequently requires the
sacrifice of a hoopoe to summon
demons and perform other magical intentions. Tereus, transformed into the hoopoe, is the king of the birds in the
Ancient Greek comedy
The Birds by
Aristophanes. In
Ovid's
Metamorphoses, book 6, King
Tereus of Thrace rapes Philomela, his wife Procne's sister, and cuts out her tongue. In revenge, Procne kills their son Itys and serves him as a stew to his father. When Tereus sees the boy's head, which is served on a platter, he grabs a sword but just as he attempts to kill the sisters, they are turned into birds—Procne into a
swallow and Philomela into a
nightingale. Tereus himself is turned into an
epops (6.674), translated as
lapwing by Dryden and
lappewincke (
lappewinge) by
John Gower in his
Confessio Amantis, or
hoopoe in A.S. Kline's translation. The bird's crest indicates his royal status, and his long, sharp beak is a symbol of his violent nature. English translators and poets probably had the
northern lapwing in mind, considering its crest.
As emblem The Eurasian hoopoe was chosen as the
national bird of
Israel in May 2008 in conjunction with the country's 60th anniversary, following a national survey of 155,000 citizens, outpolling the
white-spectacled bulbul. The hoopoe appears on the logo of the
University of Johannesburg and is the official mascot of the university's sports teams. The municipalities of
Armstedt and
Brechten, have a hoopoe in their coats of arms, as does
Mārupe Municipality since 2021.
Use in folk medicine In Morocco, hoopoes are traded live and as medicinal products in the markets, primarily in herbalist shops. This trade is unregulated and a potential threat to local populations. In
Manipur, one of the states comprising
Northeast India, the hoopoe is still used by traditional Muslim healers in a variety of preparations believed locally to benefit a number of conditions both medical and
spiritual. Manipur abuts upon
Myanmar and has been a cultural crossroads and melting pot of cultures for over 2,500 years. Its traditional medicine may thus reflect influences from an unusually wide area, including not only the
Indian subcontinent but also
Central Asia,
Southeast Asia,
East Asia and even the further-flung regions of
Siberia, the
Arctic,
Micronesia and
Polynesia. Ibopishak and Bimola record four Manipuri
folk medicinal uses of the hoopoe which specify neither the body part of the bird used nor its method of preparation: • as a
tranquilizer • in the treatment of
abdominal pain, • in the treatment of
kidney and
bladder disorders • in the "prevention of
leprosy" A talking hoopoe named Almost Brilliant is a character in
Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle, first appearing in
The Empress of Salt and Fortune. File:Hoopoe bird watercolour.jpg|The hoopoe was recorded as residing in Britain in the 18th century. File:Hoopoe de.jpg|Art from Naumann's
Natural History of the Birds of Central Europe, 3rd ed. of 1905 File:Hoopoe (Upupa epops).jpg|Hoopoe art c. 1900 ==References==