How to draw a hoopoe
Medium
A hoopoe has a crest on its head that opens like a fan. While drawing it in this lesson, you will also learn a small trick about the dashed line.
The dashed line is the wing line in the DrawBird canvas: everything above it flaps, everything below it stays as the body.
Step by step
1. Body
Well below the dashed line, draw a horizontal egg and color it salmon pink. We keep the body a bit low, because the crest needs room.
2. Head
Add a round head on the upper right of the body. Put the eye as a dot near the middle of the head.
3. Crest
On top of the head, draw a crest that opens like a fan and make its tips black. Here is the trick. Keep the crest BELOW the dashed line. If it goes above the line, it starts flapping like a wing.
4. Long curved beak
In front of the head, draw a long, thin beak that curves slightly down. The hoopoe pokes this beak into the soil to look for larvae.
5. Striped wing and tail
ABOVE the dashed line, draw a black wing and put two white stripes on it. Add a black tail on the left of the body, with a white band across the middle. In flight, this black and white pattern looks like a butterfly.
Done!
Hoopoe is ready. Now draw it in DrawBird, give it a name and let it loose in the sky.
Common mistakes
- Moving the crest above the dashed line. Everything above the line flaps.
- Drawing a short, straight beak. A hoopoe's beak is long and curved down.
- Leaving the wing one color. Without the black and white stripes, nobody recognizes a hoopoe.
What you should know about Hoopoe
- The hoopoe is 25–32 cm long, with a wingspan of 44–48 cm.
- It opens its crest when it gets excited or lands on the ground.
- Its name comes from its call, which sounds like "hoop-hoop-hoop".
- Chicks spray a bad-smelling liquid when they sense danger. Predators don't like it at all.