The Woodhoopoes and scimitarbills (Phoeniculidae) are a small family of nine species, restricted to Subsaharan Africa.

The woodhoopoes are a morphologicaqlly distinct group, unlikely to be mistaken for any other. These species are medium-sized, have metallic plumage, often blue, green or purple, and lack a crest. When climbing up the trunks of trees they do so in the manner of a woodpecker, and when feeding on the ground they hop instead of walking like the true Hoopoe. Their tails are long and strongly graduated, and marked conspicuously with white, as are their wings.

These are birds of open woodland, savannah, or thornbrush, and are mainly arboreal. They require large trees both for feeding on as well as to provide hollows for nesting and nocturnal roosting. Two species are found exclusively in rainforest, the Forest Woodhoopoe and the White-headed Woodhoopoe, all the other species are found in more open woodland and bush. They feed on arthropods, especially insects, which they find by probing with their bills in rotten wood and in crevices in bark.