Asian Koel

The Asian Koel is one of the most fascinating birds for sure. The reason being their nesting habits. Koels are used as examples in real life in several instances to illustrate when people avoid their work and try to get it done through others.

Asian Koels are commonly known as the Indian Cuckoo. In India, only called by its popular name Koel. Koel is also a popular nickname for young girls in India.

Koel is very popular in songs that are about the monsoon or about describing the sweet melodious voice of a girl.

Asian Koels are infamous for being a brood parasite. The one thing that really draws people's attention to the bird is their loud call during spring and summers in India.

Most birders who love to hear the Koo-oo Koos may not have seen who makes the sound and what it looks like.

With a great ability to hide in the woodlands and trees, Koels can still be spotted for most parts of the year. But, untrained eyes may not even realize what they are seeing is actually an Asian Koel and not a crow. They are often mistaken for House crows or Jungle crows when seen from a distance.

Asian male Koels look glossy black with curvy body. They have short Grayish beak that curves with a sharp tip. Eye color is crimson red with black iris. Legs are grey in color too.

Tail size could be described as medium long. When they perch on a branch they tend to place their entire body weight directly on to the branch instead of standing on their legs.

Asian Koels are sexually dimorphic. To identify the female is much easier, as they are quite different from the males. Females are dark brown color with white spots all over. Same body shape as the male.

Color of the eyes are just like the males, crimson red. As well as the leg color and beak color being grey. Females have whitish breast and underbelly with brown lines. The tail has white and brown horizontal stripes.

Asian Koel juveniles appear similar to the males but are smaller in size.

Adult Asian Koel on an average is 15-18 inches long, in centimeters it is between 38-45.7 cms.

Their body weight is between 190-330 grams.

They are also known to fly super fast as they have to escape the host nest's owner after keeping their eggs in the host's nest.

People rarely spot them flying though. Usually, they are only heard and hardly seen.

They tend to live anywhere between 12 to 15 years. Which is way more than other species of Koels around the world like the black-billed cuckoo or the yellow-billed cuckoo, that only live up to four to five years.

The most distinguishing feature of Asian Koel, besides its loud calls with melodious notes, is the eyes. It has red eyes with an entirely glossy black body.

For all those who have an amazing time listening to the Koel during summer time and monsoon time in India, there's no description required of how the Indian Cuckoo actually sounds.

Only for those who may have not had this opportunity, male Koels make long Koo-oo calls that are actually melodious. And they do it again and again in breaks for quite some time.

Young and adults both sometimes imitate the koo calls of the Koel for fun and people have a notion that Koels repeat the note with more strength when challenged like that. I am one of those 'bad' people to have done it all the time. It makes for a fun time at home with kids enjoying this activity.

The call of the Asian Koel is mainly heard during the mating season that is between March to October in India. But, their mating season can differ in other regions or countries, it is not fixed.

Female Koels sound different from the male cuckoos. Their call is shorter. Cannot really term it as melodious either. Rather out of tune Koo-oos, sometimes extremely shrill and annoying if prolonged.

Asian Koels are found all over India, the rest of the Indian subcontinent, and also in southern China. They are residents in India. They are not known for migrating.

They live around farms, woodlands, mangroves, bamboo thickets, etc. But, they can fly to distant lands for unknown reasons. They were found to have reached Singapore during the 1980s without being introduced there.

The scientific name or the binomial name of the Asian Koel is 'Eudynamys scolopaceus'. Kingdom 'Animalia' and Phylum 'Chordata' with Class 'Aves' and Order 'Cuculiformes'. They are part of the 'Cuculidae' family. With Genus name 'Eudynamys' and Species 'E. scolopaceus'

There are two other Cuckoo species from the same family 'Cuculidae' and Order 'Cuculiformes'. Balck-Billed Cuckoo and Yellow-billed Cuckoo but they are not that similar to the Asian Koel.

Although, Indian Cuckoos are omnivorous, the adults mainly prefer fruits as part of their diet. Where as the young ones feed on a variety of insects, eggs, small vertebrates as well as caterpillars.

Now coming to the most interesting information about the Asian Koels and that is their nesting habits. Asian Koels are known as brood parasites. Thus, they target another bird's nest to lay their eggs and leave their eggs there until they are fledglings with the host.

They select nests that have similar sized eggs for this purpose. Mostly, house crows, jungle crows, black Drongos, etc can be their target. Both male and female Asian Koels do the scouting around fruit trees to find a suitable nest. They only drop the egg when the host bird has also laid an egg. They never go for empty nests.

The process of putting the eggs into another bird's nest is done very smoothly. The male Koel distracts the host while the female will put her eggs in the nest of the host and throw out the eggs of the host bird.

At a time 2 to 3 eggs can be put into the host nest. But the numbers can be surprisingly as high as 7 to 11 eggs.

The incubation period for the eggs is between 12-14 days. The eggs hatch mostly before the host bird's eggs.

After the eggs have hatched, mother Keol keeps a check on the chicks and sometimes may also feed the nestlings in the absence of the host.

Currently, Asian Koels are not facing any threat to their population. In fact, they flourish well and multiply in numbers where ever they are.

Habitat loss can cause negative effects on their numbers though.

Asian Koels are unique birds with extremely unique social habits. They absolutely not suitable for caging or petting.