The Hoopoe. May 19, 2013 – Posted in: Birds, Travel, Watercolor – Tags: Africa, animal, animals, aquarelle, aquarelle painting, aristophanes, art, artish, bird, Birds, comedy, Conference of the Birds, draw, drawing, feather, greece, greek, Hoopoe, hoopoes, illustration, India, mistery, Nature, Old Testament, painting, persia, Photography, Recreation, Solomon, Travelling, Watercolor, watercolor aquarelle, watercolor aquarelle illustration birds bouganvillea roses tree trees, wild bird, wisdom

The hoopoe (upupa epops L.) is an old-word bird.

It hails from Africa. And it brings wisdom.

In oriental the hoopoe shelters Solomon. The king of the hoopoes asks of Solomon a reward for having shielded the king from the  rays of the sun. Solomon grants the request by bestowing golden crowns upon all hoopoes. This arouses the jealousy of the other  birds, causing them to persecute the hoopoes. They complain to Solomon, and he, in turn, changes the golden crowns into feather  crests.

Hoopoes were seen as a symbol of virtue in Persia. A hoopoe was the leader of the birds in the Persian book of poems The Conference of the Birds.

The Hoopoe is the king of the birds in the Ancient Greek comedy The Birds by Aristopanes.

It is also the state-bird of Punjab province of India.

And after all, hoopoe is a character in my favourite cartoon Kirikou, an African folk tale.  I saw one Hoopoe last week , so glad that we met each other ! Bird with power.