A curious Koel drama enfolded in the tree behind my house just before dusk last night.
I was alerted by the proximity of the ‘wirra wirra’ call and went out onto the back patio. The call seemed to become frenetic and complex until I realised that there were two male Koels, who, if not physically
fighting, were screaming loudly at each other about a metre apart. Then the Red Wattle Birds turned up, diving and screeching, three of them. It was because of the way they were diving that I then realised that there was a female Koel camouflaged in the foliage.
She soon started her brassy squawking but was very reluctant to be dislodged and too protected by the foliage for the wattle birds to actually strike her by dive-bombing her. The two dramas proceeded as if they were unrelated. The two male Koels continued
to challenge each other, no doubt over the female, but the Wattle birds ignored them. They kept harassing the female until finally she flew off with the Wattle birds in pursuit. The males wirra-wirraed each other for a little longer – or was it quora-quora
– and then flew off in the same direction as the female.
End of story or at least as much of the story as I know. Koels are extremely active and numerous around this part of Gungahlin this year.
