In Malta, the Hoopoe is one of the harbingers of spring. Individual birds may appear as early as mid-February. Hoopoes generally herald the start of migration and are mostly seen from mid-March to April. While it is common in spring, it is not as frequent in autumn, when it is seen from mid-August to mid-September. It is not unusual for individual birds to be seen in May or June.

Hoopoes are usually seen singly or twos, but there are days on migration when dozens can be seen in the same areas, especially in spring. Birds may spend up to a week in the same areas if unmolested.

The Hoopoe is a very beautiful and unmistakable bird, yet its pinkish-brown colour can render it inconspicuous when feeding on the ground. It has a long curved bill, a black tipped crest, which it usually keeps tucked down, opening it only when alert, and usually about to fly off.

The white bars on its black broad, rounded wings and tail form a very distinctive pattern, especially in flight, when it seems like a very large butterfly. The Hoopoe has a very peculiar flight, flapping a couple of times and then moving through the air like a bullet, with its wings closed.

Our relationship with the Hoopoe goes back quite a long time. It is now called Daqquqa tat-toppu, but it was already called Dacuc (plural ofDaqquqa)in 1481. Other names for it include Daqquqatal-pinnacc or Pinnicciera, both a reference to its crest.

In his dictionary of 1796, Mikiel Anton Vassalli mentions the expression tatek id-daqquqa, which literally means you’ve been struck by the Hoopoe or Cuckoo, an expression said when one is hit with an irresistible desire to laugh. Today there are variants of this expression: illum bid-daqquqa tad-dahk, meaning today I have the urge to laugh.

But in spite of the associations of fun, like any other bird, the Hoopoe was just another morsel of meat in distant and not so distant times. Lieutenant Rowland M. Sperling, who was in Malta in 1864, wrote that: “the Maltese are an omnivorous nation and are not averse to eating owls, Bee-eaters, Hoopoes etc.” Claud Buchanan Ticehurst, a British ornithologist who stopped over in Malta on his way to Alexandria in the spring of 1909, noted that birds were rather wild due to the persecution, and that Hoopoes, along with other birds such as Turtle Dove, Quail and Cuckoos, sold for 3 pence a head on the market. At that time, birds were sold for consumption from stalls at the Valletta market. For one to get a glimpse of the number of birds sold on the market, on the 2t March 1916, Giuseppe Despott noted 126 Hoopoes, among many other birds.

As standard of living started improving, the value of birds for meat started decreasing and instead of consuming whatever was shot, collecting stuffed and mounted birds started becoming fashionable in post-war years. It was common to find Hoopoes and other colourful species such as Golden Orioles and Bee-eaters stuffed and serving as a decoration on pieces of furniture even in houses where no one was a hunter.

Hoopoes became protected only in 1980 and mentalities started to change gradually over the years. Hoopoes are no longer persecuted as they used to be, though some are still shot illegally.

The Hoopoe featured on one of four stamps designed by Richard J. Caruana and issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Malta Ornithological Society on 26 January 1987.

Hoopoes may often be seen in country roads, pecking at the ground, picking insects. They may also be seen prodding the soil, fishing out grubs, usually larvae of beetles, which they toss in the air and catch them again to swallow them.

Hoopoes breed throughout Europe, North West Africa, the Middle East and central Asia. They winter in tropical Africa and south Asia.

The birds seen in Malta come from a wide arc from Germany to Eastern Europe.