WHEN THE KOEL SINGS…

As the most romanticised bird in literature, the Koel has been a common imagery of love.
But here’s an antidote to that soft face of the cuckoo

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.”

Eudynamys scolopaceus, Carolus Linnaeus, 1758

(In Thai: นกกาเหว่า)

The Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) is a member of the cuckoo order of birds, the
Cuculiformes. It is found in the Indian Subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a
superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and Pacific koels which are sometimes
treated as subspecies. The Asian koel like many of its related cuckoo kin is a brood parasite
that lays its eggs in the nests of crows and other hosts, who raise its young. They are unusual
among the cuckoos in being largely frugivorous as adults. The name koel is echoic in origin with
several language variants. The bird is a widely used symbol in Indian poetry.

Description

The Asian koel is a large, long-tailed, cuckoo measuring 39 - 46 cm and weighing 190 - 327 g.
The male of the nominate race is glossy bluish-black, with a pale greenish grey bill, the iris is
crimson, and it has grey legs and feet. The female of the nominate race is brownish on the
crown and has rufous streaks on the head. The back, rump and wing coverts are dark brown
with white and buff spots. The underparts are whitish, but is heavily striped. The other
subspecies differ in colouration and size. The upper plumage of young birds is more like that of
the male and they have a black beak.

They are very vocal during the breeding season (March to August in the Indian Subcontinent),
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.
They show a pattern of moult that differs from those of other parasitic cuckoos. The outer
primaries show a transilient (alternating) ascending moult (P9-7-5-10-8-6) while the inner
primaries are moulted in stepwise descending order (1-2-3-4).(Payne citing Stresemann and
Stresemann 1961)

Taxonomy

The Asian koel was originally described by Carl Linnaeus as Cuculus scolopaceus based on a
specimen he received from the Malabar region. The species has variations within its wide range
with several island populations and a number of taxonomic variations have been suggested.
The black-billed koel (E. melanorhynchus) of the Sulawesi region and the Pacific koel of
Australasia are sometimes considered conspecific with the Asian koel in which case the
"combined" species is known as the common koel. Due to differences in plumage, colour of bill
and voice, the three are increasingly treated as separate species. Alternatively, only the black-
billed koel has been considered as a separate species, or the Asian koel has included all
subspecies otherwise included in the Pacific koel, except for the subspecies breeding in
Australia, which then has the name Australian koel (E. cyanocephalus).

The Asian koel has several geographic forms that have well marked plumage differences or
have been geographically isolated with little gene flow. The following is a list of named
subspecies with their distributions and synonyms as given by Payne:

 Eudynamys scolopaceus scolopaceus (Linnaeus, 1758). Pakistan, India, Nepal,

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laccadives and Maldives.
 Eudynamys scolopaceus chinensis (Cabanis and Heine, 1863). Southern China and
Indochina, except the Thai-Malay Peninsula.
 Eudynamys scolopaceus harterti (Ingram, 1912). Hainan.
 Eudynamys scolopaceus malayana (Cabanis and Heine, 1863). Thai-Malay Peninsula,
Lesser Sundas and Greater Sundas, except Sulawesi. This may include the race dolosa
described from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
 Eudynamys scolopaceus mindanensis (Linnaeus, 1766) (includes E. s. paraguena)
(Hachisuka, 1934) from Palawan, and E. s. corvina (Stresemann, 1931) from
Halmahera, the Philippines (including Palawan and the Babuyan Islands), islands
between Mindanao and Sulawesi, and North Maluku, except the Sula Islands.

Distribution and habitat

The Asian koel is a bird of light woodland and cultivation. It is a mainly resident breeder in
tropical southern Asia from Iran, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to southern China and the
Greater Sundas. They have great potential in colonizing new areas, and were among the
pioneer birds to colonize the volcanic island of Krakatau. They first arrived in Singapore in the
1980s and became very common birds.

Some populations may make long-distance movements being found in places like Australia.

Behaviour

The Asian koel is a brood parasite, and lays its single egg in the nests of a variety of birds,
including the jungle crow, and house crow. In Sri Lanka before 1880 it was only known to
parasitize the jungle crow, later shifting to the house crow. A study in India found 5% of Corvus
splendens and 0.5% of Corvus macrorhynchos nests parasitized.

In Bangladesh, they parasitise long-tailed shrike (Lanius schach), common myna (Acridotheres
tristis) and house crows (Corvus splendens) at about 35.7, 31.2 and 10.8% rates respectively.
Host nests at low heights and nearer to fruit trees tended to be preferred by koels. In southern
Thailand and the Malay Peninsula, koels have shifted host from crows to mynas (Acridotheres
sp.) as the latter became more common in the late 1900s. In the Indian Subcontinent they have
sometimes been found to parasitize the black drongo, the European magpie and possibly the
black-headed oriole. Males may distract the hosts so that the female gets a chance to lay an
egg in the nest. More often however, the female visits the nest of the host alone. The koel is not
known to lay eggs in an empty host nest and a study in Pakistan found that the first koel eggs
were laid, on average, within one and half days of the laying of the host's first egg. The chicks of
the koel hatched about 3 days ahead of the host chicks. Koels usually lay only an egg or two in
a single nest but as many as seven to eleven eggs have been reported from some host nests. A
female may remove a host egg before laying. Eggs hatch in 12 to 14 days. The young koel does
not always push out eggs or evict the host chicks, and initially calls like a crow. The young
fledge in 20 to 28 days. Unlike some other cuckoos, the young do not attempt to kill the host
chicks, a trait that is shared with the channel-billed cuckoos which are also largely frugivorous
as adults. It has been suggested that koels, like some other brood parasites do not evict the
host chicks due presumably due to the higher cost of evicting nestmates. A small parasite may
not be able to evict large host eggs or chicks from a deep Corvid nest without risking starvation
and possibly accidental self-eviction. An alternative hypothesis that retaining host chicks might
benefit the koel chicks did not gain much support. Adult female parents have been known to
feed young koels in the nests of the hosts, a behaviour seen in some other brood parasitic
species as well. Adult males have however not been noted to feed fledglings.

The Asian koel is omnivorous, consuming a variety of insects, caterpillars, eggs and small
vertebrates. Adults feed mainly on fruit. They will sometimes defend fruiting trees that they
forage in and chase away other frugivores. They have been noted to be especially important in
the dispersal of the sandalwood tree (Santalum album) in India. Large seeded fruits are
sometimes quickly regurgitated near the parent tree while small seeded fruits are ingested and
are likely to be deposited at greater distances from the parent tree. They have a large gape and
are capable of swallowing large fruits including the hard fruit of palms such as Arenga and
Livistona. They have been known to occasionally take eggs of small birds.

They feed on the fruits of Cascabela thevetia which are known to be toxic to mammals.

A number of parasites of the species have been described, including malaria-like protozoa, lice
and nematodes.

In culture

The word "koel" is onomatopoeic in origin. The Sanskrit name of "Kokila" and words in several
Indian languages are similarly echoic. Being familiar birds with loud calls, references to them
are common in folklore, myth and poetry. It is traditionally held in high regard for its song and
revered in the Manusmriti, an ancient decree protecting them from harm. The Vedas, Sanskrit
literature dated to about 2000 BC referred to it as Anya-Vapa which has been translated as "that
which was raised by others" (or "sown for others to reap"). This has been interpreted as the
earliest knowledge of brood parasitism. It has been chosen as the state bird by the Indian union
territory of Puducherry.

These birds were once very popular in India as cage birds. Feeding even on boiled rice, these
birds hardy lived in captivity for as long as 14 years.

The Mysterious Cebuano Bird in Pigafetta’s Account

As we approach 500 years since Magellan reached what would become the Philippines, I have
been revisiting Antonio Pigafetta’s chronicle of the voyage. While reading his entries on culture
and customs in the Cebu area, I came across a very curious entry which had previously piqued
my interest last year.

“Every night about midnight in that city, a jet black bird as large as a crow was wont to come,
and no sooner had it thus reached the houses than it began to screech, so that all the dogs began
to howl; and that screeching and howling would last for four or five hours, but those people
would never tell us the reason of it.” [March/ April 1521]
 This portrait (Marasca
Collection, Biblioteca Bertoliana of Vicenza) is traditionally believed to represent Antonio
Pigafetta.

BIRDS OF AUGURY
According to unanimous testimony from various sources the use of auspices as a means to
decipher the will of the gods was a common practice throughout the archipelago. Augury is the
practice of interpreting omens from the observed behavior of birds.

Birds of augury were common throughout the Philippines, Here are a few, taken from
Blumentritt’s “DICCIONARIO MITOLÓGICO DE FILIPINAS“:
Balan tikis. Name of a bird, whose song was for the early Tagalogs an omen.

Balatiti. A bird of augury for the early Tagalogs. They called balatitiin a person to whom
the Balatiti always sang.

Baua. It is a mythical bird that, according to the religious beliefs of the early Visayans, had the
power to convert the men it encountered into asuang, bird, or another animal, and sometimes it
devoured them.
Dimoko: That same as Limokan, name of a wild bird, whose cries serve as an omen to the many
infidel races of Mindanao.

Haya or Sayasaya. Name of a bird whose song (barubarito) was a bad omen for the early
Bicolanos.

Kaskas. A nocturnal bird of augury of the early Visayans when it sings, it seems to say: kas-kas
kas-kas

Kemuek. What the Tiruray people called the song of a nocturnal bird, that they believed to be a
duende called bolbol.

Kilit-kilit. The Bulalacan people (of Calamianes) believe in the ominous message of the Kilit-
kilit, a kind of kestrel/falcon/bird of prey, which announces the misfortunes and deaths from the
roof eaves.

Korokoró. A nocturnal bird similar to the turtle-dove. It is believed that its song announces
arrival of the Asuang. (Belief of the early Bicol people.)

Kumao. The early Ilocanos feared the mythical bird Kumao, which is said to take abandoned
children.

Limokon or Limukun. It is the Bagobo and Mandaya (Mindanao) name of the wild
dove Phabotreron brevirostris whose song serves as an omen. The Visayan people frequently
name this dove in their songs and allegories, and keep watching out for superstitious signs from
this bird.

Ngio-ngio. A bird that the Visayans believe is a brujo. It gets its name from its song: ngio-ngio.
Salaksak. This bird, whose scientific name I cannot recall, portends disaster or death with its call
(superstition of the rural Ilocanos).

Suiit. A little bird whose song is an oracle to the Igorots and Guinaangs.

Tigmamanukin. A bird, also called tigmamanok, whose songs serve as an omen to the
Tagalogs. Its scientific name is Jrena cyanogastra (according to Doctor A. B. Meyer).

Tiktik. A night bird that announces the proximity of the Asuang with its song.

THE QUESTION
In June of last year a video of Pigafetta’s account was shared with me with me and posed the
following question: “At 6:35 Pigafetta mentions a black bird that comes out during the night, is
this an historical account of an aswang?”

Okay, now I’m interested. Perhaps this was thought to be a “tiktik” type of bird by the locals.

The most commonly used translation of Pigafetta’s account is from James Alexander Robertson
using the Italian manuscript (also published in the Blair and Robertson ‘The Philippine Islands’).
In translations from the other 3 French manuscripts it also says the dogs howled
and “bayed” (barking, making noise) at the sound of this bird. Depending on how the dogs in the
village were trained, this could mean they were scared and ‘alerting’ the people, or they were
simply notifying the people something was there. We also need to consider that dogs become
bored easily when they have nothing to do and will make their own fun. Barking at every sound
they hear, joining in with the neighbor dogs in a group barking session, or just barking to let out
energy are all reasons behind night barking.

Still, the people not explaining the nightly occurrence could be due to the immediately frowned
upon local ‘superstitious’ beliefs and customs. Or, there was nothing to explain.

THE BIRD
Before we explain the bird as something from ‘superstition’ we need to explore what bird this
may have actually been. I first looked at Philippine Crows as it was the most obvious place to
start, but it did not seem that it would fit the description of a single bird acting alone. Since
Pigafetta seemed familiar with crows, the sound produced by various asian crow species and
sub-species would have been familiar to him and described as such. He also used features of the
crow to describe birds in Verzin (Brazil).

Over the years I have become somewhat proficient in researching various aspects of history
throughout the Philippines, but I am certainly no ornithologist. I decided to reach out to people
who have far more expertise on the subject. The most likely answer came from the Philippine
Bird Photography Forum – FB Group.

Adrian Constantino wrote: “Hi Jordan, I haven’t read the entire entry on page 175. But I am
guessing it could be a male Asian Koel. It is all black, with a whitish bill, reddish eyes. And
before summertime, it can call in the middle of the night for several minutes. The older
generation speak of the calling/singing of this bird in the middle of the night as an indicator that
summertime/dry season is approaching. Great find, thanks for sharing it here.”
 Asian Koel
Eudynamys scolopaceus shot at chalakudy Kerala India | Photo by Dr. Vipin Challiyil Pavithran
The Asian koel is a large and long-tailed cuckoo measuring 39–46 cm (15–18 in) and weighing
190–327 g (6.7–11.5 oz). The male of the nominate race is glossy bluish-black, with a pale
greenish grey bill, the iris is crimson, and it has grey legs and feet. The female of the nominate
race is brownish on the crown and has rufous streaks on the head. The back, rump and wing
coverts are dark brown with white and buff spots. The underparts are whitish, but is heavily
striped. The other subspecies differ in colouration and size. The upper plumage of young birds is
more like that of the male and they have a black beak. They are very vocal during the breeding
season (March to August in the Indian Subcontinent), 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.

I will admit that I am super nit-picky when it comes to presenting information to the public.
Sometimes researchers have no choice but to give an educated guess when presenting ideas, but I
try to avoid the obvious questions by answering them first. Pigafetta’s mysterious bird is
explained almost perfectly by the size, description, and behaviour of the male Asian Koel. It
bothered me that all the information I could find described the male Asian Koel as calling before
dawn, rather than the described “midnight”. I went back to the Italian translation of Pigafetta’s
account which exists in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy and saw it used the term “circa
la meza nocte” (about middle of the night). Pigafetta’s original journal is lost, so I feel
comfortable giving some leeway on the exact time the bird was heard and how this may have
been interpreted by translators.

Asian
Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus shot at chalakudy Kerala India | Photo by Dr. Vipin Challiyil
Pavithran

The Asian koel was originally though to have been first described by Carl Linnaeus as Cuculus
scolopaceus based on a specimen he received from the Malabar region in the mid 18th century.
If the information in this article is correct, the male Asian Koel may have actually been first
documented in the Philippines by Pigafetta more than two hundred years previous [ March/ April
1521].

As always, I welcome feedback and discussions about this over at THE ASWANG
PROJECT Facebook and Instagram pages.

ALSO READ: The Role Of Birds And Serpents In Philippine Mythology

Jordan Clark
Jordan Clark is a Canadian born descendant of Scottish immigrants living on the homelands of
the Lekwungen speaking peoples. His interest in Philippine myth and folklore began in 2004.
Finding it difficult to track down resources on the topic, he founded The Aswang Project in
2006. Shortly after, he embarked on a 5 year journey, along with producing partner Cheryl Anne
del Rosario, to make the 2011 feature length documentary THE ASWANG PHENOMENON –
an exploration of the aswang myth and its effects on Philippine society. In 2015 he directed “The
Creatures of Philippine Mythology” web-series, which features 3 folkloric beings from the
Philippines – the TIKBALANG, KAPRE and BAKUNAWA. Episodes are available to watch on
YouTube. Jordan recently oversaw the editing for the English language release of Ferdinand
Blumentritt’s DICCIONARIO MITOLÓGICO DE FILIPINAS (Dictionary of Philippine
Mythology) and is working on two more releases with fellow creators scheduled for release later
this year. When his nose isn’t in a book, he spends time with his amazing Filipina wife of 20
years and their smart and wonderful teenaged daughter.
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