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I spent a few days over Christmas on a farm overlooking
an Irish-green valley on the northern outskirts of Maleny. Coucals could
be often heard, and I would watch a pair playing on a green slope where
re-emerging lantana was pushing up through the lush pasture grass. I
suspect they had their nest nearby. Whenever I come across these birds
they remind me of the savannah country around Port Moresby, where they would
frequently emerge from the kunai to flap pheasant-like along or across the
yellow gravel roads, perhaps the most conspicuous birds of the coastal
plain.
Koels were also present around the Maleny hills in some
numbers, as I'm sure they are now around most of the greener areas of
eastern Australia. The mad cry of these birds echoed throughout the
day. I have read that the British in India called this the
'Brain-fever Bird', but only in those parts of the sub-continent where the true
Brain-fever Bird, a smaller cuckoo, Cuculus varius, was not found. I have
been told that the Brisbane suburb Toowong was named for the cry of the Koel,
although someone else has suggested to me that the responsible bird was,
rather, the Rufous Whistler.
My experience, trivial though it might seem, was early on the
morning of Boxing Day when I was inspecting the Silky Oaks growing around
the horse exercise yard. I noticed a coucal leap up onto a lower
branch with a flurry of tawny and chestnut wings, and then hop upwards
from branch to branch in the manner of Harry, our
street-peacock. It perched near the top and uttered its
unlikely wobble-board call. Just then a koel flew into the same tree and
gave voice. The call of each bird was echoed by its respective rival
from down in the valley, and both replied in turn.
There was something about those two noisy cuckoos in the one
tree, as long as they were there, that demanded attention. I find
cuckoos to be like that, and there are some other birds - raptors,
cranes and owls for example - that have what might be called a presence,
unlike parrots, honeyeaters and finches that, however rare or interesting, are
usually just passing by.
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