The bird that paints its eggs with bacteria and whose chicks fire faeces
Threaten this nest and the chicks turn around and fire a jet of faeces at you.
Which one is REALLY true about the Hoopoe?
The short version
The hoopoe's breeding female produces a dark, foul-smelling secretion that she deliberately paints onto her eggs. It is loaded with bacteria that appear to kill harmful microbes, so the stench is really a shield. The chicks hiss, stab with their beaks, and squirt faeces at intruders.
Why it's so weird
- ✓The Hoopoe is a striking crested bird found across Europe, Asia and Africa.
- ✓The Hoopoe has a gland, active while the female is breeding, that produces a dark and powerfully smelling secretion.
- ✓The Hoopoe deliberately paints that foul secretion all over its own eggs.
- ✓The Hoopoe loads the eggs with bacteria that appear to kill other, harmful microbes, so the stench is really working as a shield.
- ✓The Hoopoe raises chicks that hiss, stab upward with their beaks, and fire a jet of liquid faeces at anything reaching into the nest.
You could line up about 4 of them along a 7-year-old!
The full story
Threaten this nest, and the chicks turn around and fire liquid faeces at you. Meet the hoopoe, a striking crested bird found across Europe, Asia and Africa. Its nest is famously, aggressively foul. While she is breeding, the mother has a gland that produces a dark, powerfully smelling secretion, and she deliberately paints it over her own eggs. That secretion is packed with bacteria which appear to kill other, harmful microbes, so the stench is actually working as a shield. The chicks then add a defence of their own. They hiss, they stab upward with their beaks, and they aim a jet of faeces at anything that reaches in. Predators learn very quickly that this hole in a tree is not worth it. Follow for more weird animal facts.
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Hoopoe gallery
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“The Hoopoe is a striking crested bird found across Europe, Asia and Africa.”
“The Hoopoe carries a huge hollow casque on top of its beak.”
“The Hoopoe has a gland, active while the female is breeding, that produces a dark and powerfully smelling secretion.”