Remarkably long indeed, and a valuable record for that reason. From Canberra observations I know of, mostly unpublished, this behaviour deserves the adjective ‘frequent’. It can be of varying degrees of
duration and intensity. The HANZAB extract mentioned concludes ‘Both descriptions similar, probably threat display or courtship display or both; further study needed.’
The duration of the display Jack reports, might help rule out courtship. This, and other available information on the behaviour, suggests a (mutual) purpose of evicting a rival from a high-value potential
mating site, as marked by female presence. That is, we are seeing contests for possession of such sites.
In my local area these were seen occasionally before koels and wattlebirds were banished by Noisy Miners. Part of a relevant CBN item from 2018 is attached. A pity that useful CBN reports in general are
difficult to track down and collate. The chatline archive facility makes reports here slightly easier to recover. particularly with use of author name.
From:
Canberrabirds <> On Behalf Of
jandaholland--- via Canberrabirds
Sent: Wednesday, 12 November 2025 2:47 PM
To: 'Canberra birds' <>
Subject: [Canberrabirds] Remarkably long male Koels standoff
Subscribers may be aware of my very strong interest in the Eastern (Pacific) Koel, a fascinating species for which I continue to make new observations. Since their relatively late arrival last month they have been very active and noisy
in my local area of Chapman/Rivett.
Around 3 pm on Sunday 9 November I heard some scratchy noises which I associate with them sitting quietly in trees and very soon a combination of the well known “whoa” and the very fast “wek wek wek” calls allowed me to find 2 males sitting
still facing each other < 4 metres apart in our Eucalyptus crenulata.
This tree has a quite open canopy and through our front windows I was able to regularly check their progress, expecting them to soon leave. However, despite several sets of short calling as above and also just the “wow” or the first part
of the whoa call, they persisted. They mainly sat quietly just some wing flicking, occasionally moving just a bit and gradually getting closer together so that as it became dark, they were around a metre apart.
Some early morning similar close calling suggested they had overnighted there, which I could confirm as they were in nearly the same position when I got up shortly after 6 am. Surprisingly they stayed there for the whole of Monday, very
much quieter (as was other Koel calling) than on Sunday, though they did move around a bit, with at one stage being almost within touching distance.
As it got dark it seemed clear they would overnight again, which they did, supported by some more close early calls on Tuesday morning from around 4:30 am, initially the “kek kek kek” female call was followed by a series of short “whoa”
calls. Just after 5 am another set of loud kek kek keks was followed by whoas with the latter then clearly moving away suggesting they had left, which was confirmed when I got up about an hour later.
So, the two males were in the same tree (my regular checking supports they never left it and came back) for around 38 hours, of which about 19 were daylight hours, a remarkable feat. During this time, they only moved over a few metres
and appeared not to eat anything.
I have seen male as well as female Koels in “frozen” positions before but for a maximum of around 1 hour before they moved away.
HANZAB describes in quite a bit of detail two other similar but quite early examples (published in 1961 and 1970) of “threat or advertising display” which describe similar behaviour. Though the length of observations is not clear, there
is no indication of them lasting overnight.
Both seem to have ended when other birds came along and I have wondered whether the arrival of a female, whose kek kek kek call was also heard at 8:30 pm the evening before, had caused them to finally leave. The only other nearby calls
during this period were some mid-distant whoas at 19:33 and close kek keks at 19:39 on Monday evening.
