Israel National Animal

The hoopoe is a colorful bird found across Afro

Eurasia, notable for its distinctive crown of feather. It is
the only extant species in the family Upupidae. One
insular species, the Saint Helena hoopoe, is extinct, and
the Madagascar subspecies of the hoopoe is sometimes
elevated to a full species. Like the Latin name Upupa, the
English name is an onomatopoeic form which imitates the
cry of the bird. The hoopoe is the national bird of Israel.
The hoopoe was classified clade Coracii forms, which also
includes kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. A close
relationship between hoopoe and the wood hoopoe is also
supported by the shared unique nature of their stapes. In
the Sibley-Alquist taxonomy, the Hoopoe is separated
order, the Upupiformes. Some authorities place the wood
hoopoes dating back to the Miocene and those of an
extinct related family, the Eocene. It is the only extant
member of its family , some treatments consider some of
the subspecies.