Jacobin Cuckoo or Pied Crested Cuckoo, with the generic name Clamator Jacobinus, commonly known as Chataka, which is unique as it quenches its thirst with only rain drops and never from any other water source, was sighted in Siddhavatam range in Lankamalla forest in Kadapa district, rekindling the hope that the district would receive a good rainfall.
Chataka is a slender, long-tailed, created black and white cuckoo, whose call is a ranging series of whistling notes. Shrubs, wetlands and cultivated lands are its habitat and it feeds on grasshoppers, hairy caterpillars and berries. It figures in Indian mythology and poet Kalidasa referred to it in his work “Meghdoota” as a metaphor for deep yearning. Saints cite it as an example of an ideal spiritual seeker who ignores all the wordly pleasures and quenches its thirst by directly from the heaven’s abode.
The bird was reportedly seen last week by local people near Dasarikunta in Konduru beat and Regumanukunta in Maddur forest beat in Siddhavatam range, according to Rajender, field assistant of the Jerdon Courser Research Centre at Konduru. He claims to have photographed the bird that migrates to places where monsoon sets in. The local people believe that the bird, harbinger of monsoon, calls on Megha when it gets thirsty and its call is always answered with a good rainfall.
Lankamalla forests, where a Jerdon's Courser, colloquially known as Kalivi Kodi, was seen a few decades, is the abode of various birds and animals and is further enriched by the sighting of the Chataka bird, Siddhavatam forest range officer Subbarayudu says.
