Getting a visit from a bird "The sacred Hoopoa bird" - Beirut - Lebanon


"In one of my visits to Beirut, I was staying on the 7th Floor of an 8 story building. One afternoon as I was sitting in my living room all of a sudden a bird flew up to my floor and stood facing me on the railing of my balcony. He was about 4 m away. He just stood there looking at me and me looking at him. I grabbed my camera and snapped few shots. At first I did not know what kind of bird it was but his attitude was very strange to choose this particular building. The whole neigherhood is made up of similar tall buildings and all had the same color. About 10 to 15 minutes later he decided to fly straight toward me. But he could not get close because there was a mosquito net right in front of me so he turned around then left."

"The weirdness in this is it's not easy to find/point to the location of somebody from outside of the building even if someone knew where a person was exactly staying and in which building and on which floor, with all the similar same color tall buildings and balcony styles all around it would be extremely difficult(if not impossible) to point to someone exactly where someone was staying? So if this bird came for me how did he know where I was?"

"Later on I cheked my pictures and did a search on this type of birds and it turned out to be a "Hoopa bird". Hoopa birds to many civilations were sacred birds that carry news from beyond; To native American they held significant importance because they carried spiritual symbolism. To ancient Epyptians they were associated with Goddess Isis and symbolized resurrection and protection, to the Greeks they were linked to their God Hermes and represented wisdom and were also seen as guides to the souls in the afterlife, to Islam the Hoopoa bird was associated with wisdom and guidance, it is also mentioned in Surah An-Naml where it was noted for it's role as a messenger for prophet Solomon."


Patrick Zakhm