Common Koel

Description:

Male :- All dark glossy-black, with blue-green tinge. Eye is a dark red to vermilion. Bill is blue-grey to cream-grey, with a lighter tip – at times greenish. Feet are mid to dark grey, or grey-brown.

Habitat:

Riverside scrubs; Monsoon thicket; Rain forest and dense pockets of eucalyptus. Over a few months, this Koel was in and out of this Chinese Celtis tree, which hangs over my backyard fence, sometimes alone and sometimes after the female.

Notes:

I hear the long-drawn, upslurred, whistled cooee of the male, quite regularly around my home. The male and female Koel often visit my backyard. This call is monotonously repeated but changes to a whirling, whistled crescendo, during courtship or other excitement. And, as has been throughout my lifetime, the monotonous cooee is what has led folk to often call the male a Storm Bird. Whether he conjures up a storm, sure beats me. Maybe it's a knowledgeable insight of weather change that the bird picks up on. Reference:- Readers Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds