The Hoopoe - An Ambassador of Hope
Now you know Hoopoe is pronounced hūpū and that it is a tawny orange bird, sporting a distinctive crown of feathers dipped in white and black. This contrast extends to its wing and tail feathers that fold together to form a flashy black and white chevron from behind. Its wings explode upon flight into a kaleidoscope of color, yet this flight is not a mere flapping of wings, but a complex wave of action that looks more like a giant graceful butterfly in flight.
HOOPOE / Upupa epops / in SLOW MOTION from Artur Homan on Vimeo.
Not only is the Hoopoe beautiful, it’s a legend in the smarts department. The Persian Muslim poet Attar of Nishapur named the Hoopoe the "wisest" bird in the world in his 1177 epic, The Conference of Birds, as it leads a multitude of birds on a quest to discover truth; eventually discovering truth is the all-consuming God whose glory consumes their own. Israel’s King Solomon, who historically shares the “wisest” title, is rumored to have sought out the Hoopoe on building Israel’s grand and glorious temple and dispatched the bird as a messenger abroad to share the good news of Solomon’s wise rule. In 2008, Israel even adopted the Hoopoe as its national bird.
Beautiful, graceful, and smart…but also an emissary or ambassador, immortalized in both Islamic lore and the Old Testament wisdom books. Makes me think the Hoopoe should be our cross-cultural ambassador – a peace symbol of sorts, for who can resist wisdom and who can deny truth?
In addition to beauty, grace and intelligence, a Hoopoe can hold its own, making it a fierce defender. It has an odd way of protecting itself which lends well to its name - supposedly given for the sound it makes – “oop oop," but we know better, it’s the sound we make - “who poo?” They secrete a protective stink on their feathers and also on their clutch of eggs, and once hatched, the young chicks will directly spray this same sh*t (love you mama) to scare predators away. A Hoopoe is one formidable mama. Touch her babies, you’ll be the rotten egg!
One might say, then, the Hoopoe rightfully deserves the reputation the Old Testament bestows upon it – an unclean bird, not fit for consumption. Yet centuries later, when a hungry disciple of Jesus Christ receives a vision, the Hoopoe's reputation is cleaned up - not by a bird bath, but by God himself.
"...Something like a great sheet descended, let down by its four corners upon the earth, full of all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And a voice came to him: ‘Rise, Peter, kill and eat.’” Peter vehemently balks (he was good at that). “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.”
No doubt he saw - or smelled - the Hoopoe fluttering like a butterfly above that motley gathering of the clean and the unclean. The Lord gently rebukes Peter.
“Peter, thou doth protest too much! What God has made clean, do not call common.” Acts 10:15
Superstition has it, the cry of a hoopoe signals a good vintage year. To me, its cry expresses hope. For the vision given to Peter declared a dirty bird clean. Was this a message from God that Peter could go hunting for Hoopoe? No (he preferred fish), but instead was a message that Peter was now free to accept an invitation to dine with a dirty, forbidden Gentile - Cornelius, who needed cleansing as much as Peter the Jew. As much as this jewelry artist.
The Hoopoe – beautiful, graceful, intelligent, fierce – An Emissary of Hope.
A dirty bird cleaned by God.