In what manner does the koel sing in the month of march?
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Answer:
The South West Monsoon has set in and the nippy mornings are punctuated by the mellifluous call of the cuckoo. The bird has been the muse of great poets and writers and cuckoo songs are associated with rains. But have you ever noticed a cuckoo tailing a crow in your neighbourhood. The sight is most likely to take place in the monsoons, when crows start nesting. “Koels and Cuckoos are cousins belonging to the same family. Both the birds lay eggs in the nests of host birds,” says N. Raveendran, a city-based birder. “Koels are entirely dependent on house crows. They have also become common neighbourhood birds over the years. They are parallel bird communities that co-exist. But they have a love-hate relationship.”
The Asian Koel is a crafty avian parasite that’s a dominant aggressive survivor. “It’s a brood parasite. The parent birds would push the eggs of the host to accommodate their eggs. In some cases, even the newly hatched chick pushes the host’s egg off the nest,” reveals Raveendran. “It was startling to see this happen at a nest in the city outskirts. The incubation period of cuckoos is 13 to 16 days and the period for crows is 17 to 20 days. That’s how the cuckoo chicks hatch earlier than crows.”
The entire process of this parasite nesting precedes the rains. That’s when the crows pair and build nests. The male koel is jet black in colour that’s a keen observer of the crows. It’s he who sings beautifully. Birders and researchers have recorded over 16 different calls by males while females emit only two kinds of calls. The female has a pattern of grey freckles on its body. “The male sings to attract the females. It’s also an announcement that the crows have started nesting. The call will be a long, different from the usual short notes,” explains Raveendran. The male bird follows a strategy where he distracts the crow parents and diverts their attention from the nest. Using the opportunity, the female Koel would sneak in and lay its egg. “Female Koels have the ability to contain the eggs inside body and delay them from coming out.”