The сommon hoopoe is a medium-sized bird native to Europe, Asia, and Africa and the most widespread species of its genus. It is a distinctive cinnamon-colored bird with black-and-white wings, a tall erectile crest, a broad white band across a black tail, and a long, slender down-curved bill with a fawn base. Its call is a soft “oop-oop-oop.”

Its diet is mainly insects, though it occasionally eats small reptiles, frogs, seeds, and berries. A solitary ground forager, it sometimes catches swarming insects in flight. Conservation status: Least Concern, though populations continue to decline from habitat loss and over-hunting.