In the end, it was the case that the candidate with the most eye-catching styling prevailed and the likeable but somewhat pale competitor was left behind. The hoopoe was voted “Bird of the Year” by public voting, as the Naturschutzbund (Nabu) announced live on Instagram on Thursday that the house martin came in second.
Before it had been said that the two birds were fighting head-to-head (shouldn’t it actually be hop-to-head racing?), But in the end the result was clear: 31.9 percent for the hoopoe , which inherits last year’s winner robin, and only 24.4 percent for the house martin. A total of 142,798 votes were cast, with the red linnet, the field sparrow and the wheatear landed in third to fifth place.
The hoopoe is undoubtedly a great guy with its orange feather hood, which it sets up shortly after landing and when excited. Incidentally, the females are in no way inferior to the males, which is to be credited to the hoopoe that, unlike many other bird species, there is visual equality there.
Beneficiaries of climate change
Culturally, he has received extensive recognition, in Aristophane’s comedy “The Birds” he is the king, In the nursery rhyme from the bird wedding, he brings the bride the flowerpot, and, oh yes, there was also a hoopoe stamp from Deutsche Post once. He clearly owes his prominence to his appearance, because he is neither an artful nest builder – according to Nabu, he sometimes only forms a hollow in which the eggs are laid – nor a great singer. The male’s courtship call is a three-syllable “upupup”, from which the Latin name of the hoopoe is derived: Upupa epops.
The hoopoe is not squeamish when dealing with enemies; when danger threatens, females and young birds excrete a foul-smelling secretion. Despite these sophisticated defense tactics, the hoopoe is considered endangered, fewer than 500 pairs breed in Germany, which is primarily a result of intensive agriculture. But its population is growing again, because the migratory bird likes it warm. He could actually benefit from the climate crisis.