Photo Credits: pg 3- anchor
Monsoons have just set in Goa, bringing relief to all the water parched areas and reviving all the silent waterfalls. Monsoons is a time when we love to tuck ourselves into a warm couch with a cup of coffee and a good book to relax on a lazy Sunday, but for the bird watchers of Goa, this is a time to go cuckoo about Cuckoos for monsoons are an active time for many resident and migrant species of Cuckoo’s that are found in Goa with eight species of Cuckoos been reported till date.
Among all the species of Cuckoos there is one which stands out because of its beauty and because of popular local belief associated with it: Pied-crested Cuckoo also known as the Jacobin Cuckoo. This species is often called the harbinger of monsoons in India because of the uncanny and almost precise timing of it's migration which coincides with the arrival of the monsoons.
There are three known subspecies that are found in the world of which the subspecies jacobinus is a resident of southern India and Sri Lanka while the subspecies serratus migrates from Africa to India and their migration coincides with the monsoons. It is popularly believed that the winds of the monsoons help these birds cover this distance with much ease.
The Pied-crested Cuckoo is a medium sized bird (13 inches) with a slender body and a very long tail. It has a prominent crest on its head and is called “pied” because of its black and white contrasting colouration. In flight, a white patch can be seen on the wings. Sexes are alike and can’t be distinguished on the field.
The African subspecies can be seen arriving to Goa by June along with the local migrant Indian subspecies and return back by September or latest by October, while the Indian subspecies stays back a bit longer. The Indian and the African subspecies can be distinguished by trained eyes based on the overall size of the bird and wingspan, both of which are greater in the African subspecies.
The Pied-crested Cuckoo just like other Cuckoos are brood parasites. It has been commonly observed parasitizing nests of Jungle Babblers and Bulbuls. Often the male distracts the parents of the host nest while the female lays eggs in this period.
The call of the Pied-crested Cuckoo is the well known “piu piu” which has been famously immortalized in many popular bollywood movie songs. They are commonly called the Chātak or the Kala Papiha in northern India. According to Indian mythology it has a beak atop its head (probably referring to its crest) and it thirsts for the rains. The poet Kalidasa used it in his work "Meghadoota" as a metaphor for deep yearning and this tradition continues in many literary works.
International Union for Conservation of Nature lists this species as least concerned in terms of conservation prioritization because of its large range and stable population size. Goa gets a fair share of these monsoon visitors every year, so do make it a point to get a glimpse of this bird this monsoon!
Image Credit: Milind Kulkarni
