BULBUL

(Bulʹbul) [Heb., ʽa·ghurʹ].

The name of a number of types of medium-sized thrushlike birds found in Africa and southern Asia, including Palestine. The bulbul characteristically has a short neck, short wings and a long tail. The Arabic name for the bulbul corresponds to the Hebrew word ʽa·ghurʹ, at Isaiah 38:14 and Jeremiah 8:7. While many translations render ʽa·ghurʹ as “crane,” Hezekiah’s reference to the bird’s “chirping [from tsa·phaphʹ]” hardly seems to describe the deep trumpeting sound made by that large bird. In his book Kleine Lichter, lexicographer Ludwig Koehler says the Hebrew ʽa·ghurʹ describes a bird that ‘ruffles or bristles its feathers’ and says concerning the bulbul that “during the pauses (of its song) . . . from time to time it lifts the extended crestlike feathers of the back of the head.” (Kleine Lichter [German], pp. 38, 39) Unlike the somewhat bellowing sound of the crane, the song of the bulbul is rather flutelike in tone and described as a combination chirp and warble.

Jeremiah (8:7) evidently refers to the seasonal arrival of migratory birds in his censuring the Israelites for not discerning the time of God’s judgment on them. Pointing out that many songbirds use the Jordan valley as a migration corridor, Harper’s Bible Dictionary (p. 74) states that the birds using such corridor “include the bulbul (E[astern] song thrush).” It is described as a bird of gardens and wooded valleys and streams, gracing the early spring air with its pleasant song.