Asian or Common Koel
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The Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopacea), or Common Koel, is a member of the cuckoo order of birds. It is also colloquially known as the Rainbird in eastern Australia, as its call is supposed to foreshadow rain. The word koel also means "nightingale" in India because of the Indian Koel's melodious call.
Recent changes in classification by Christidis and Boles and the IOC have split the Australian race into its own species, Eastern or Pacific Koel (Eudynamys orientalis)
They were once very popular in India as cagebirds. Feeding even on boiled rice, these hardy birds lived in captivity for as long as 14 years.
Description
The Asian Koel is a large, long-tailed, cuckoo at 45 cm. The male is greenish-black, with a pale green bill and red eyes. The female is brownish above and whitish below, but is heavily striped and spotted brown on the underparts and white on the upperparts. She has an olive or green beak and red eyes.
This is a noisy species, with persistent and loud ku-OO ku-OO calls as well as other cackles and screams.
Distribution and habitat
The Asian Koel is a bird of light woodland and cultivation. It is a mainly resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka to south China and Australasia. Birds at the fringes of the range, such as much of Eastern Australia, and on high ground are summer visitors, migrating to warmer areas in winter.
Behaviour
It is a brood parasite, and lays its single egg in the nests of a variety of birds, including House Crows and honeyeaters. The young Koel does not always evict its host's chicks, and initially calls like a crow.
It was the first bird to be documented as a brood parasite.
In Sri Lanka it was known to parasitize only the Jungle Crow until the 1880 and later shifted to the House Crow. About 5% of Corvus splendens nests and 0.5% of Jungle Crows nests were found to be parasitized in India] In Southern Thailand and the Malay Peninsula, Koels have shifted host from Crows to Mynas (Acridotheres sp.) as the latter became more common in the late 1900s.
In Australia their hosts are mainly large honeyeaters (especially Noisy Friarbirds Philemon corniculatus and Red Wattlebirds Anthochaera carunculata). In India they have been found to parasitize Black-headed Orioles and the Black Drongo.
Males may distract the hosts so that the female gets a chance to lay an egg in the nest. More often however, the female visits the nest of the host alone.
A study of vocalization noted that the duetting behaviour may indicate the possibility of short-term pair-bonding in the otherwise polygynous mating system.
Breeding / Nesting:
Koels usually lay only an egg or two in a single nest but as many as seven to eleven eggs have been found in some nests. A female may remove a host egg before laying. Eggs hatch in 12 to 14 days. The young Koel does not always evict its host's chicks, and initially calls like a crow. The young fledge in 20 to 28 days.
Unlike in other cuckoos, the young do not attempt to kill the host chicks. This trait is shared with the Channel-billed Cuckoos Scythrops novaehollandiae which are also largely frugivorous as adults. The adult female koels may not leave their offspring entirely to the hosts. Adult males have not been noted to feed fledglings. This behaviour of brood parasites feeding their young is seen in several other species.
Diet
The Asian Koel takes a variety of insects, caterpillars, eggs and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats fruit. They will sometimes defend fruiting trees and chase away other frugivores] They have been noted to be especially important in the dispersal of the sandalwood tree (Santalum album) in India. Large seeded fruits are quickly regurgitated near the parent tree while small seeded fruits are ingested and are likely to be deposited at greater distances from the parent tree. They have a large gape and are capable of eating large fruits, regurgitating seeds and thereby also dispersing plants. It has occasionally been known to take eggs of small birds.
Subspecies
The Asian Koel was originally described by Linnaeus as Cuculus scolopaceus based on a specimen that he received from the Malabar region. About fifteen subspecies are recognized with some like cyanocephala and Black-billed_Koel" (melanorhyncha) treated by some authors as full species:
- Eudynamys scolopacea scolopacea (Linnaeus, 1758); Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Laccadives, Maldives;
- Eudynamys scolopacea chinensis (Cabanis and Heine,1863); southern China, continental Indochina;
- Eudynamys scolopacea harterti (Ingram, 1912); Hainan;
- Eudynamys scolopacea malayana (Cabanis and Heine, 1863); S Burma,Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Bangka, Lesser Sundas, Lombok,Sumbawa, Satonda, ?Komodo, Flores, Besar, Paloe),Borneo; (This may include the race dolosa described from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands)
- Eudynamys scolopacea mindanensis (Linnaeus,1766) (includes E. s. paraguena (Hachisuka, 1934),from Palawan, and E. s. corvina (Stresemann, 1931),from Halmahera); the Philippines (including Palawan and Babuyanes Islands), islands NE of Sulawesi (Talaud Islands (Karakelong,Lirung), Sangihe, Siau, Ruang, Manterawu); northern Moluccas (Morotai, Halmahera, Ternate, Tidore, Moti, Bacan);
- Eudynamys scolopacea rufiventer (Lesson, 1830); New Guinea (except southern Irian Jaya);
- Eudynamys scolopacea minima van Oordt 1911;southwestern New Guinea;
- Eudynamys scolopacea salvadorii Hartert, 1900; Bismarck Archipelago;
- Eudynamys scolopacea hybrida Diamond, 2000;Long Island, between New Guinea and New Britain;
- Eudynamys scolopacea alberti Rothschild and Hartert, 1907; Solomon Islands;
- Eudynamys scolopacea melanorhyncha S. Müller, 1843; Sulawesi, Banggai, Muna, Togian Islands, Peleng and Sula Islands (Taliabu, Seho); (This race has multiple female plumage morphs.)
- Eudynamys scolopacea orientalis (Linnaeus, 1766)(includes E. s. picata S. Müller, 1843); C and S Moluccas (Buru, Manipa, Kelang, Seram, Ambon, Tujuh,Watubela Islands);
- Eudynamys scolopacea everetti Hartert 1900; Sumba to Timor and Roma, Kai Islands;
- Eudynamys scolopacea cyanocephala (Latham 1801);Torres Strait islands north to Boigu and Darnley, N and E Queensland, west to the lower Norman River and north to Cape York and islands off the east coast as far as the Capricorn group, and in New South Wales;
- Eudynamys scolopacea subcyanocephala Mathews, 1912; northern Australia (Western Australia, Northern Territories, western Queensland south to Mt Isa and Dolomote and east to the Cloncurry); migrant to New Guinea.
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