Eudynamys scolopaceus
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) is a member of the cuckoo family of birds, the Cuculidae. It is found in the Indian subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and Pacific koels which are sometimes treated as subspecies. The Asian koel, like many of its related cuckoo kin, is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of crows and other hosts, who raise its young. They are unusual among the cuckoos in being largely frugivorous as adults. The name koel is echoic in origin with several language variants. The bird is a widely used symbol in Indian, Pakistani and Nepali poetry.
In 1747, the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of an Asian koel in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds book. He used the English name "The Brown and Spotted Indian Cuckow". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen from Bengal that belonged to the London silk-pattern designer and naturalist Joseph Dandridge. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the Asian koel with the... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hajipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Vijayawada | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Yangon | 🇲🇲 Myanmar | |
| 4 | Tiruppur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Madurai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Puducherry | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bangkok | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 10 | Bhubaneshwar | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jijamata Udyaan | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Chai Nat Bird Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 3 | Penang Bird Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Koel sighting in Kuching on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 57 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Koel in Kuching on a given day, against under 5% in July, the lowest month. Those are among Kuching's wettest months, with about 450 mm of rain a month against 220 mm in July. December has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Asian Koel sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
85th of 111
Of the 111 cities where we can rate Asian Koel sightings, Kuching ranks 85th at about 10%. The best odds are in Hajipur (India, about 90%), Vijayawada (India, about 90%) and Yangon (Myanmar, about 90%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Asian Koel that you can see in Kuching (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 20%) and Plaintive Cuckoo (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Asian Koel is recorded against all the birds logged in Kuching (28 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
