"Duchifat" (דוכיפת), Israel's New National bird

The trisyllabic song "oop-oop-oop", which gives rise to its English and scientific name Upupa epops of Family UPUPIDAE (Hoopoes)

The Hoopoe, or "Duchifat" (דוכיפת) was chosen as the national bird of the State of Israel in May 2008 in conjunction with the country's 60th anniversary.

President Shimon Peres announced the Hoopoe as Israel's new national bird. The Hoopoe won an election held by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, which concluded after months of voting. 155,000 people participated in the nationwide election.

Stirred up some Hoopoe's nest in the Media

Reuters headlined the news: Israel names biblically banned Hoopoe national bird. "It may not be kosher, but the Hoopoe was chosen on Thursday as Israel's national bird" it continues.

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Post banners: Dirty, treif, but fit for a king, the hoopoe is our national bird.

"It's not a very hygienic bird. It smells very bad," Jonathan Meyrav, a bird expert at Kibbutz Lahav in the Negev and quoted by the Post, said with a laugh. "It wasn't my personal favorite - but the people have spoken."

Hoopoe in the Torah

The Book of Leviticus groups the Hoopoe with birds such as the eagle, vulture and pelican that are "abhorrent, not to be eaten".

Ramban, in his commentary on Parashat Shemini (Leviticus 11), explains that all the animals and birds that claw and catch their prey in this way possess the terrible trait of brutality (and we are what we eat...). Therefore the Torah wished to distance His people from these categories of animal life as a source of food lest our hearts acquire such a brutal nature.

In the Linear English Chumash (S.S.&R. Publishers) we find each of the described unclean birds with names we can recognize:

The nesher is translated as the "great vulture"; the peres as the "bearded vulture"; the da'ah as the kite; the ayah as the falcon; the orev as the raven; the bat haya'anah as the ostrich; the tachmas as the night hawk; the shachaf as the sea mew (seagull); the netz as the hawk; the kos as the "little owl"; the shalach as the cormorant; the yanshuf as the "great owl"; the tinshemet as the "horned owl"; the ka'at as the pelican; the racham as the "carrion vulture"; the chasida as the stork; the anafa as the heron; the duchifat as the hoopoe; and the atalef as the bat.

Hoopoes in the Rabbinic Writings

The duchifat is called nagar tura, carpenter of the mountain, by Targum Onkelos because of its characteristics, as our Rabbis explained in Tractate Gittin (68b):

The Gemara there discusses King Solomon's dilemma. He wished to build the Holy Temple but was restricted from using cutting tools to cut the large stones from the quarries into smaller building blocks. The Gemara relates how Solomon encountered the demon Ashmedai (Asmodeus), who told him of the shamir, a small worm that possessed the unique ability to cut stone. Ashmedai further said that the only creature that might bring him the shamir was the tarnegol habar, the wild rooster or wild cock (as translated by the ArtScroll Schottenstein Edition of the Shas.)

The key element of this description is that the wild rooster or duchifat utilizes its clawing ability to pick up the shamir.

Hoopoe in the Encyclopedia Judaica

We find here another aspect of this bird that makes it unfit for kosher consumption (Vol. 8:970):

"HOOPOE (Heb. duchifat; AV 'lapwing'), bird included in the Pentateuch among the unclean birds (Lev. 11:19; Deut. 14:18). The hoopoe was confused by Karaites with the chicken, for which reason they prohibited the eating of the latter (see Ibn Ezra on Lev. 11:19), even though the two are in fact distinguished from each other by many characteristics. Because of its crest, which is no more than an erectile tuft of feathers, the hoopoe is called 'the wild cock' in the Talmud (Git. 68b). Smaller than a dove, it feeds on insects, and is distinguished by its beautifully colored plumage. Its flesh exudes an offensive smell which is particularly strong near its nest and repels anyone trying to approach it. This perhaps was the reason certain legends associated with it, such as that it guards treasures in its nest, and was entrusted with transporting the shamir, the miraculous worm that split the stones of the Temple, the use of an iron tool for the purpose having been prohibited (Deut. 27:5; Hul. 63a)."

Thus we see that the duchifat is indeed considered a bird of prey, and as such we can begin to understand the reason that the Torah prohibited it to us.

Hoopoes in World Literature

* Once a man, Tereus was transformed into the form of a Hoopoe in Greek mythology. The character featured prominently in Aristophanes' Birds.
* In Islam, the Hoopoe is associated with King Solomon who spoke with animals, (in Arabic the Prophet Suleyman) and he tells him of the Queen of Sheba and her magnificent land. Quran 27:20-28.
* In classical Chinese poetry, the Hoopoe is depicted as a celestial messenger often bearing news of the spring.
* A hoopoe figures centrally in The Conference of the Birds, one of the central works of Sufi literature.