E-Kantipur

This article is a paean of love to the koel (cuckoo). I have survived the disappearance of the vulture which was an elegant, spare bird that looked like a Roman patrician. I have survived the disappearance of the sparrow, which was the friendliest sweetest bird ever and a part of all the homes I have lived in. I have survived the disappearance of bees which came as a gift to the few flowers I grew in winter and whose steady drone always made me drowsy. But I think that if the koel disappeared, I would just give up the

will to live. I have not seen the koel in my garden. She is very very shy, and any attempt to seek her out would drive her away. But she wakes me up in the morning, and her infrequent “kuhu” during the day keeps me alert.

My house, which used to be a parking lot, has become Delhi’s only house-forest, and it has all sorts of birds in it. The Asian koel is the Eudynamys scolopacea. It is found in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Laccadive Islands. Our koel is the smallest of all. The upper part of the female is black to blackish brown. Its under parts are dirty white to pale buff. The male is entirely black with a dark metallic blue gloss, appearing purplish at times. It looks like a crow with a very long tail. The eye irises are bright red, the bill is dull yellowish-green and the inside of the mouth is red.

The koel is found in orchards and lightly wooded areas in parks and gardens in towns and villages. It is a shy bird and easily overlooked during the winter months when it remains silent and unobtrusive. It walks along tree branches. It is rarely found on the ground, and only briefly seen in the open when furtively dashing from cover to cover.  It can sometimes be seen sunning itself on top of a tree early in the morning. During the breeding season, the koel becomes obvious. Its loud, melodious and penetrating call is usually the first to be heard at dawn, while it is still dark, late into the night.

The koel eats berries, nuts and fruits. It also eats caterpillars, snails, mantids, stick insects and other insects .The koel is an amazing strategist. She refuses to build her own nest. Instead, she lays her eggs surreptitiously in the nests of several host species, the choice of victim varying from location to location. She usually chooses crows, but also other species like common mynas, golden orioles and common magpies. Her eggs

are very much like those of the crow, but slightly smaller. They come in varying degrees of green, from pale greenish-yellow to greyish-green, profusely speckled and blotched with reddish-brown.

Bird intelligence shows: The koel varies the colour of her eggs to match that of the hosts’ eggs. Can a human mother manipulate the slightest thing in her unborn child? Not only does this show the magic in the koel but recent studies have shown that colonies of birds that find themselves the victims of koels do some magic as well. Dr Claire Spottiswood from the University of Cambridge describes a continual evolutionary arms race between the host birds and koels, “As the cuckoo has become more proficient at tricking its hosts, hosts have evolved more and more sophisticated ways to fight back. One strategy of combating the brood parasite is for the females of the host species to each lay eggs of different colours and patterns. So from nest to nest, the eggs of the host birds look different. This means the cuckoo parasite is far less able to lay a counterfeit egg that matches the host eggs.”

To enable the koel to lay an egg in a crow’s nest, the couple devises a clever plan.  First, the male koel stations itself very close to the crow’s nest, calling loudly and boldly to advertise his presence. The male and female crows promptly chase the intruder away. The female koel, lurking nearby under dense cover, quietly waits until the crows are far enough away, and then slips in to lay her egg in their nest. The female usually lays eggs just after the host has laid her first egg. The koel’s breeding season usually corresponds with that of its usual host and, during a single season, the female lays one egg each in several nests.

Does the koel destroy her host’s eggs? Sometimes, if there is no space for hers. But many observers have seen young crows and koels in the nest together. The nestling period is 19 to 28 days, and newly fledged young cuckoos are fed by its foster parents for another two to three weeks. Birdwatchers used to insist that the host birds were so stupid that they did not know the difference between

their own and the koel’s young. Now, it has been discovered that the females, after laying their eggs, stay in the vicinity; and if the hosts do not feed her young, they get attacked by the koel pair.  When the young koel is ready to leave the nest, they take charge of the youngster directly. In India, the koel is part of Kamadeva’s armoury of seduction along with the scented breeze, the mango, the jasmine flowers and the dolphin.

Here is a lovely haiku-type poem:

A koel and the spring,

I wait under a mango tree

For a promise to be fulfilled.    

gandhim@nic.in

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