‘ Ku-oo…ku-oo ’ — the koel sings as though it’s making an emotional appeal. They’ve been quite loquacious over the past few weeks. So, what’s happening in their world? “The breeding season of koels is from March to October,” says author Janaki Lenin, whose book My Husband & Other Animals 2 was released recently. She adds that the call can signify “telling off rivals or courtship”. For the romantic, the song sure sounds like it belongs to the latter category.
Mettupalayam-based naturalist Mohamed Ali agrees. “What we hear is the male singing to impress the female,” he says. “She will be listening from her perch nearby, and will choose the one whose singing is pitch-perfect.” The females are picky; Ali says that they are keen listeners. “They make a minute assessment of the song before they come up with a conclusion,” he adds. Her response, is a soft ‘ keek keek ,’ according to Ali. “This is her way of saying ‘you are selected’,” he adds.
The next step is mating and one would assume, building a nest. “But koels are parasitic,” explains Lenin. Which means they intrude into other birds’ nests. Crows are the most common birds to end up as foster parents for koel chicks. “Male koels sing in such a way so as to chase away crows from their nests,” says Ali. “Once the host flies out, the female swoops in to lay an egg, sometimes two.”
“Not just crows, koels sometimes choose mynahs as their hosts too,” he adds. The design, has, by way of evolution, always been this way. Ali cites examples of certain species of cuckoos in Europe that lay eggs in nests of sparrows that are smaller than them. But the poor hosts mostly always take care of the koel chicks.
L Joseph Reginald, from Coimbatore-based Animal Rescuers, says his team usually gets house calls for rescuing crow and koel chicks during the crow breeding season. The NGO works with the Forest Department on bird and animal rescue and rehabilitation. “Some koel chicks, once hatched, tend to get pushed out of the nest by crows,” he explains. “We rescue crow chicks as well, but koel chicks outnumber them,” he adds.
Ali says that the song of the koel also signifies the arrival of the monsoon. “The monsoon is the time when plant life is in its most fertile form,” he explains. Insects too tend to thrive, since there’s plenty to eat and as a result, birds time their breeding season to match with that of the monsoon. It’s a fascinating pattern.
