Hi Ray,
They are two separate species but do have the same basic call. The koel we have commonly in Australia is called the Pacific Koel (also known, wrongly in my opinion, as the Eastern Koel) and the majority of these winter in PNG and the Pacific Islands, whereas the Asian Koel has been recorded in Australian Territories of Christmas Island, the Cocos-Keeling Islands and, I think, Ashmore Reef off the n w coast of Western Australia. The males look the same but there are differences in the females.
There was quite a discussion some time back on the chat line about koels and species/subspecies and what occurred where. Look up the archives if you are interested. The common names are another can of worms altogether which I won’t go into here other than to say in Australia the “official” Australian list is the very out of date Christidis and Boles but even the “heavies” in Birds Australia or whatever they call themselves now are starting to use the regularly updated IOC list –google ’Worldbirdnames.org’ to get a copy. This list is regularly updated and anyone with any sense will be using it.
Cheers,
Mark
From: Sue-Ellen and Ray [
Sent: Tuesday, 13 March 2012 1:30 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Eastern (Common) Koel
Hi All – There has been a lot of “chat” about the Koel over the summer period with its haunting, persistent calling. It is described in my version of Simpson and Day as a “partial” migrant. I read also there is an Asian Koel.
A friend of mine has just returned from a yoga holiday at a little island called Koh Samui in Thailand where she recorded a bird call and then did the same near her home in Sydney as she thought they were the same bird species and asked me to identify the bird in question. This was not difficult as it was clearly the Koel.
This got me to wondering whether the Eastern Koel migrates through Thailand or is it simply the Asian version with the same call – any thoughts/experiences?
