kakelaar, noun
- Forms:
- Also kackela.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, literally ‘chatterer’, ‘cackler’, from Dutch kakel, kakelen to chatter, cackle + agential suffix -aar; see quotation 1884.
The wood hoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus of the Phoeniculidae, black with a red bill; monkey-bird.
- Note:
- In G.L. Maclean’s Roberts’ Birds of Sn Afr. (1993), the name ‘Redbilled Woodhoopoe’ is used for this species.
1884 Layard & Sharpe Birds of S. Afr. 137Its voice is harsh and resounding, and has acquired for it the name of ‘Kackela’ among the Dutch, which signifies the ‘chatterer’.
1982 S. Afr. Panorama Sept. 50Particularly noisy is the kakelaar, or red-billed hoopoo, a sociable black bird with a long, white spotted tail and raucous, cackling call.

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