A number of reviews of the hanging unique chicken have emerged throughout the UK this month.
The hoopoe chicken has black and white striped wings, extravagant head feathers and makes a “oop-oop-oop” name (Picture: Igor Gebles through Getty Photos)
A hanging unique chicken has been noticed throughout Britain this month, with sightings confirmed in Gloucestershire, Devon, Cornwall, Kent, Essex and Dorset. Residents and enthusiastic birdwatchers have described witnessing an ‘inflow’ of those eye-catching birds in April 2026, with quite a few reviews flooding in from throughout the south of England.
The hoopoe “is an unique trying chicken that’s the measurement of a mistle thrush”, the RSPB explains on their web site. It’s definitely exhausting to overlook, boasting “a pinkish-brown physique, hanging black and white wings, a black downcurved invoice, and a pinkish-brown crest which it raises when excited”. These spectacular creatures don’t sometimes breed within the UK, however have a tendency to seem briefly throughout springtime as they migrate northwards from Africa to Europe — with many “overshoot and land on the south coast of England”, in line with the RSPB.
A powerful hoopoe (Upupa epops) feeding in a discipline within the UK (Picture: Sandra Standbridge through Getty Photos)
Pronounced “hu-pu”, the hoopoe has been producing appreciable pleasure nationwide as reviews of sightings pour in throughout social media and specialist birdwatching web sites.
The Kent Ornithological Society (KOS) shared particulars of hoopoe sightings of their “highlights of the week” on April 10, noting on their web site that “excitingly, the inflow of Hoopoes continued”.
KOS wrote: “After as much as 5 birds have been seen final week, Hoopoes confirmed up at 4 additional areas this week: North Foreland (on April 4) Bough Beech (April 5), Farringham (April 7) and St Nicolas at Wade (on April 9).
The hoopoe birds “did not stick round for lengthy”, KOS reported, but additional sightings of the hanging birds have been recorded throughout quite a few different elements of the nation, with one Essex resident recognizing their “first ever hoopoe” of their very personal backyard.
British Birdwatching (a public Fb group the place chicken lovers report UK chicken sightings) has featured a number of current posts concerning this uncommon and exotic-looking customer to British shores.
Eurasian Hoopoe feeds chick in a meadow (Picture: yujie chen through Getty Photos)
Yesterday in Devon, one Fb consumer posted within the British Birdwatching group, writing “hoopoe noticed this morning on Dartmoor” the publish has had over 4K reactions as locals share their fascination about this “fantastic” trying chicken.
One other publish in the identical Fb group reviews “I distinctly heard the hoopoe round Warleigh Property in Plymouth”.
Whereas these birds don’t ordinarily breed within the UK, in 2023 a pair did certainly nest, with BBC Countryfile reporting on the time that “a pair of hanging hoopoes” had “efficiently raised younger in Leicestershire and Rutland” – and this was the “first confirmed UK breeding since 1996”.
The RSPB information an annual common “UK passage” of 100 hoopoe birds, although reviews from birdwatchers counsel that higher numbers than normal have been noticed all through this spring throughout the UK.
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Hoopoes feed on a variety of bugs, and BBC Uncover Wildlife highlights one other exceptional attribute: “If alarmed, the birds launch a fluid that stinks of rotting meat from a specialised gland above the tail.”
With their black and white striped wings and lavish head feathers, together with a “oop-oop-oop” name, in case you’re fortunate sufficient to cross paths with one in every of these flamboyant birds, there is a good probability of noticing it.
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