5 incredible Hoopoe facts: 1) Fossils show a stable evolutionary history of the hoopoe dating back nearly 40 million years. 2) The bird is named after its “oop-oop-oop” call. 3) They appear in Egyptian hieroglyphs, biblical references, and are Israel’s national bird. 4) It is celebrated as a wise guide in the Persian Sufi poem "The Conference of the Birds" by Farid ud-Din Attar. 5) Hoopoes secrete a foul, rotten meat-smelling substance from their uropygial gland to repel predators and parasites.