Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE CUCKOOS

Koels

On the ground of possessing a naked tarsus, short, rounded wings, and a generally long, broad, and well-graduated tail, certain forms have been set aside as forming the subfamily Phoenicophainm, among them the Koels (Eudynamis), so called in imitation of their call note. T

he Koels, of which there are some six or seven species, range throughout the Oriental region and thence to New Guinea and Australia and have the sexes unlike in plumage, the male being black throughout and the female variously spotted and barred.

The Indian Koel (E. honorata) is a bird about seventeen inches long, and is one of the best-known and most familiar of Indian birds, frequenting groves and trees in cultivated areas and feeding entirely on fruit.

They have a rich, melodious call like the words ku-il, ku-il, and are parasitic on Grackles, Fruit Pigeons, and Crows, especially the Indian Crow (Corvus splendens), often placing two or three similarly colored eggs in each nest, and when the young Koel is strong enough it manages to get rid of the young Crows by pushing them over the edge.

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