Koels Calling

["Philip Veerman" <>]

I agree with Jack's observation. Inasmuch as the pair near my house are still consistently noisy, including this morning, at about 6 am. Indeed the male and female are still calling duets from trees within about 20 to 50 metres of each other. Although I have only seen that twice, I have heard presumably the same thing many times over the past few weeks. They surely are not struggling to locate each other. It has crossed my mind to wonder if they are trying to locate and collect any possible young birds. So far I have not seen any sign of young Koels nearby. That does not mean that this pair did not try.

 

Philip

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack & Andrea Holland [
Sent: Thursday, 23 February 2012 8:19 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Koels Calling

After only a few very brief calls over the past fortnight, the Chapman Koel was in full voice for at least 10 minutes shortly after 6 am this morning.  I had been alerted to it by calling around 7:30 pm last night, very unusual for this season has the vast majority of calling has been in the first few hours after daybreak, and then only in short bursts.

 

Are the Koels still conspicuously calling your local area, and does anyone have any suggestions/theories about why the peak calling seems to have been, as it was last year, after the New Year when most of the eggs would have been laid for the fledglings/chicks which have been reported over the past month?   This is unexpected if calling is, as for other cuckoos, aimed at trying to attract a mate, as the likelihood of a fledgling surviving from an egg laid in February would seem to me to be pretty low.

 

Jack Holland