My bird journey - The Koels...

One fine day when I went out to my balcony, I saw a brown coloured bird with white spots all over, enjoying itself eating the tiny red fruits in the bush below. I was fascinated. As I was engrossed watching this bird, I saw the black koel at a little distance from this brown bird. I knew at once that this brown spotted bird had to be from the koel family. My experience with birds has shown that birds of a feather truly flock together.

I quickly got my camera out, got a few pictures and googled for this bird. And here's what I discovered - The brown bird is the female variety of the Asian Koel. It is brown in colour, with brown and white stripes on the tail, and had red eyes.. !

( Please click on the pictures below to see an enlarged clear image of the bird )









And while I was busy photographing the female koel, how could I miss capturing the male Asian Koel - Dark black with shades of green blue on its feathers and red eyes..! Its proud demeanour had a presence of its own .. !







Beautiful as they are to look at, they are also very vocal. They are especially heard a lot during the breeding season (March to August in South Asia), with a range of different calls. The familiar song of the male is a repeated koo-Ooo. The female makes a shrill kik-kik-kik... call. Calls vary across populations.