Distribution

Breeding Range

In Europe, the Eurasian Hoopoe breeds north to France (except northwestern strip), southern and eastern Germany, Latvia, the Moscow of area of Russia, and Russia's Samara Oblast; occasional breeding occurs north of this range to England, Denmark, southern Sweden, and Estonia (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). In Asia, the northern limit of its breeding range continues east through northern Kazakhstan and southern Lake Baikal to the Russian coast at about 53^oN, with occasional breeding east to Japan (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 59 Brazil, M. (2009). Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). The southern edge of the breeding range is largely formed by the continent's coastal edge west to the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 60 Robson, C. (2000). A Field Guide to the Birds of South-east Asia. New Holland, London, UK. Close , 59 Brazil, M. (2009). Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024), with the following exceptions: present on Sri Lanka but absent from most of Peninsular Malaysia, much of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India, and southern Pakistan, plus absent above elevations of 3,500 m in Pakistan, 4,400 m in Nepal, and 2,870 m in Bhutan and, presumably, with similar elevation limitations in China and adjacent countries (61 Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp, and T. Inskipp (1999). A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close , 7 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close , 60 Robson, C. (2000). A Field Guide to the Birds of South-east Asia. New Holland, London, UK. Close ). Its breeding range in the Middle East is complicated, likely due to the extremely arid conditions in much of this area. It is known to breed in Qatar, along a small coastal strip in the northeastern United Arab Emirates and northern Oman, across southwestern Yemen, on a strip that covers much of coastal/near coastal southwestern Saudi Arabia plus a tongue of land that extends east to approximately Sakaka and then southeast to Riyadh, northern Iraq, northern and coastal Syria, and most of Türkiye, Lebanon, and Israel (62 Porter, R. F., S. Christensen, and P. Schiermacker-Hansen (1996). Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East. T. & A. D. Poyser, London, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024).

In northern Africa, the Eurasian Hoopoe breeds in the Nile River delta and along the Nile River into northern Sudan, in the vicinity of the Dakhla Oasis, Egypt, Tunisia, northern Algeria, the Hoggar Mountains in southern Algeria, Morocco (except southernmost), the Canary Islands, and Madeira Island (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). In sub-Saharan Africa, it breeds north to Mauritania south to Cameroon and east through southern Niger, southern Chad, South Sudan, central Ethiopia, and into Somalia (3 Borrow, N., and R. Demey (2001). Birds of Western Africa. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close , 51 Stevenson, T., and J. Fanshawe (2002). Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi. T. & A. D. Poyser, London, UK. Close , 31 Krištín, A., and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Close ). South of this line, it is absent as a breeder from southern Guinea-Bissau, most of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, C'ote d'Ivoire (except northernmost), southern Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, most of Cameroon, northern Gabon, northern Congo, northern Kenya, southern and central Somalia, much of the central and southern Democratic Republic of Congo, and northern and eastern Angola (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 3 Borrow, N., and R. Demey (2001). Birds of Western Africa. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close , 51 Stevenson, T., and J. Fanshawe (2002). Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi. T. & A. D. Poyser, London, UK. Close , 31 Krištín, A., and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024).

Nonbreeding Range

In Africa, the Eurasian Hoopoe's range south of the Sahara fills in somewhat during the nonbreeding season, when it occurs throughout its breeding range plus in all of Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone as well as the northern half of C'ote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin, the northern 3/4 of Nigeria, the northern half of Cameroon, all of Chad and Kenya, and most of Sudan (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , 3 Borrow, N., and R. Demey (2001). Birds of Western Africa. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close , 51 Stevenson, T., and J. Fanshawe (2002). Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi. T. & A. D. Poyser, London, UK. Close , 31 Krištín, A., and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). In northern Africa, its nonbreeding range includes its entire breeding range plus northwestern Libya (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). In Europe, its nonbreeding range is the entirety of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees Mountains (except for northwestern Spain), the northeastern coast of Spain, and the southern coast of France to about Marseille, although there are scattered winter records north through France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and into southern Sweden, as well as east through Italy and Greece into Bulgaria (eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024), including one bird that overwintered somehow as far north as Sweden (32 Ericson, P. G. P. (1997). Swedish records of the eastern Palearctic Hoopoe subspecies Upupa epops saturata. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 117(1):19–26. Close ).

In Asia, the northern edge of its nonbreeding range is from northern South Korea, across a line from Beijing southwest to Lijiang in China, northwest along the southern slopes of the Himalayas (up to 1,500 m) to Islamabad and Peshawar in northern Pakistan; the southern border is largely the continent's coastal edge west to Karachi, Pakistan, with the following exceptions: it is common on Sri Lanka, uncommon on Taiwan, and absent from all but northernmost Peninsular Malaysia, where it is scarce (61 Grimmett, R., C. Inskipp, and T. Inskipp (1999). A Guide to the Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close , 7 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close , 60 Robson, C. (2000). A Field Guide to the Birds of South-east Asia. New Holland, London, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). Additionally, it is a vagrant during winter to Japan (eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). In the Middle East, it is found along the coastlines of the Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea and throughout Oman; it status in Yemen away from southwestern Yemen is unclear, and it can be found on its breeding grounds throughout the nonbreeding season in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula (62 Porter, R. F., S. Christensen, and P. Schiermacker-Hansen (1996). Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East. T. & A. D. Poyser, London, UK. Close , eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024). It also winters throughout Israel and into southern Lebanon and western Jordan (eBird data, accessed 17 February 2024).

Extralimital Records

The Eurasian Hoopoe occurs so frequently north and northwest of its European breeding range that it can hardly be called a vagrant there. For instance, there were 5,206 records of Eurasian Hoopoe in the United Kingdom from 1968–2012 (63 White, S., and C. Kehoe (2015). Report on scarce migrant birds in Britain in 2011–12. Part I: non-passerines. British Birds 108:126–157. Close ), with 66–154 individuals/year in Great Britain during the 1990s (64 Fraser, P. A., and M. J. Rogers (2002). Report on scarce migrant birds in Britain in 2000. British Birds 95:606–630. Close ), roughly two-thirds of which were during spring, from mid-March into May, and one-third of which were from fall, mostly September (65 Brown, A., and P. V. Grice (2005). Birds in England. T. & A.D. Poyser, London, UK. Close ). To the northwest of Great Britain, in Iceland, the Eurasian Hoopoe occurs much less frequently, and most records there come from fall: there have been at least 6 records on Iceland from 2009–2023, 5 of which are from 24 September–22 October and one from late April (eBird data, accessed 16 February 2024). At the far northern reaches of Europe, at Svalbard, there are 2 records: one old (date not given) record and one more recent record, on 4 September 2023 (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close , H. Midtun, eBird S149844893). These spring vagrant Eurasian Hoopoe are spring overshoots, birds that were flying in the correct direction but flew past their breeding grounds, typically driven by wind, but sometimes due to genetic misprogramming or other intrinsic factors (66 Lees, A., and J. Gilroy (2021). Vagrancy in Birds. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ). The mechanism of fall vagrancy is not as apparent, and those vagrants may well not originate (at least not entirely) from proximate populations in western Europe, but rather from farther east (65 Brown, A., and P. V. Grice (2005). Birds in England. T. & A.D. Poyser, London, UK. Close ). Indeed, a study in Sweden demonstrated that many fall records there represented the Eastern Palearctic population of Upupa epops epops, which was formerly known as Upupa epops saturata (see Subspecies), and the occurrence of these birds in Europe could well be explained by reverse migration, otherwise known as 180^o misorientation, which is the apparent cause for the occurrence of many Asian species during fall in Europe (32 Ericson, P. G. P. (1997). Swedish records of the eastern Palearctic Hoopoe subspecies Upupa epops saturata. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 117(1):19–26. Close , 66 Lees, A., and J. Gilroy (2021). Vagrancy in Birds. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ).

The Eurasian Hoopoe is also a regular vagrant just east of its breeding range in Asia. Several per year are reported to eBird in Japan, with a substantial peak from mid-March into early May and a smaller fall peak, roughly from late August into early October (eBird data, accessed 16 February 2024). Additionally, there have been at least 10 records from the Philippines since 2005, 7 during September/October, 1 overwintering, and 2 in March (eBird data, accessed 16 February 2024). The spring records are of spring overshoots (59 Brazil, M. (2009). Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), but the mechanism for the fall records would depend on some evidence regarding their point of origin.

Other vagrant records are both far-flung and relatively infrequent. The only record from Wallacea comes from Bitung on the far northeast tip of Sulawesi, 28 September 2011 (67 McNeill, R. D., and J. Lambaihang (2013). First record of Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops for Wallacea. Kukila 17(1):39–40. Close ). There are at least two records from Australia: one was 30 km north east of Broome, Western Australia, from 10 November 2011 into mid-December 2011 (68 Onton, K., C. J. Hassell, M. Hulzebosch, and A. Keates (2012). Eurasian Hoopoe (Upupa epops) at Roebuck Plains Roadhouse, Western Australia, the first record for Australian Territory. Amytornis 4:5–8. Close ), and another was on Adolphus Island, Western Australia, 24 October 2014 (H. Woyt, eBird S22088683). In North America, there are four records from western Alaska, 2–25 September 1975 (69 Dau, C. P., and J. Paniyak (1977). Hoopoe, a first record for North America. Auk 94(3):601. Close , eBird data, accessed 27 February 2024) and which seemingly represent reverse misoriented fall migrants (70 Howell, S. N. G., I. Lewington, and W. Russell (2014). Rare Birds of North America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ). There are at least two records from the southern Japanese Islands, including one at Omura, 14 September 2013 (A. Shimazaki, eBird S52680813) and one at Hahajima Retto, 5 September 2022 (J. Fujitsuka, eBird S119550219). In the Indian Ocean, wayward individuals have been recorded twice on Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago, with one found in March 1996 and another on 25 September 2011 (71 Carr, P. (2015). Birds of the British Indian Ocean Territory, Chagos archipelago, central Indian Ocean. Indian Birds 10(3–4):57–70. Close , P. Carr, eBird S24335194), and it is a rare straggler south to the Lakshadweep Islands (4 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 and 2. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA. Close ), Maldives (72 Ash, J. S., and A. Shafeeg (1994). Birds of the Maldive Islands, Indian Ocean. Forktail 10:3–32. Close ), and Andaman Islands (4 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 and 2. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA. Close ). Far out into the Atlantic, an Eurasian Hoopoe was found in Nordeste County, Azores, 6 March 2008 (C. Pereira, eBird S26432630, 73 Barcelos, L. M. D., P. R. Rodrigues, J. Bried, E. P. Mendonça, R. Gabriel, and P. A. V. Borges (2015). Birds from the Azores: An updated list with some comments on species distribution. Biodiversity Data Journal 3:e6604 Close ). Finally, an individual of the nominate subspecies, Upupa epops epops, was well within range for the species, but >2,000 km south for the taxon, when found in Malawi (74 Dowsett-Lemaire, F., and R. J. Dowsett (2006). The Birds of Malawi: An Atlas and Handbook. Tauraco Press & Aves, Liège, Belgium. Close ).

In Europe, the range of the Eurasian Hoopoe has waxed and waned and waxed somewhat, with changes seemingly due, in part, to climate change, change in land use, and the use of nestboxes (1 Cramp, S., Editor (1985). The Birds of the Western Palearctic. Volume 4. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Close ). Changes elsewhere are not well understood or widely documented. In Israel, the Eurasian Hoopoe was a local breeder in the north of the country and along the coastal plain into the 1950s, but along with the spread of agriculture, its breeding numbers and range in Israel have expanded greatly, and it is common throughout northern and central parts of the country (75 Shirihai, H. (1996). The Birds of Israel: A Complete Avifauna and Bird Atlas of Israel. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ).