Day 66 - the Jacobin cuckoo sightings

Two nature walks this weekend with Madras Naturalists' Society and two sightings of the Jacobin cuckoo - on Saturday at Chembarambakkam and on Sunday in Thiruvanmyur.  I love to spot this bird, with that handsome crest and long tail.

Pied Cuckoo. (Clamator jacobinus) that we saw at Chembarambakkam, sitting on the Mesquite.  There were two of them, and they flew together gracefully, with streaming tails, from one bush to another.  

The bird delighted all those watching as it called as well.  "Oh, it's going to rain - its call is seen as a harbinger of rain!" exclaimed either Abhishek or Vijay.  And what do you know - the skies opened on Saturday night - Manali in the north the city had a cloudburst and 20 cms of rain!  😅

This Record shot of the cuckoo was taken by Dr Rajaram at the Thiruvanmyur thickets, along the beach.   We were helping with the MNS Shore walk and as he says, "We spotted the cuckoo for a brief period and I got the record shot above before it was chased away by the crows."

Like all cuckoos, this is also a brood parasite - like the Asian Koel - happily laying eggs in the nest of other birds .  It is also a resident of peninsular India, though there seems to be some west to east movement, maybe with monsoon winds - see the map below. 

The purple blocks are where it is year-round, and the turquoise is more in the winter.  Pied cuckoo populations are stable and not of concern conservation-wise.

The Pied cuckoo has strong monsoon associations in north India.  The scientists at Wildlife Institute of India tagged a couple of these birds in 2020, and found that they migrate to Africa via Goa, during the winter - this is the North Indian birdies. The peninsular ones seem more content with their lot and just move around between the coasts.

Full excitement in north India when these birds come - Chatak - they are called - they come to breed in the Himalayan foothills.  Legendarily, the Chatak is believed to drink only raindrops, and so its call is compared to a plea for rains.  Imagine that!  From Meghaduta by Kalidasa to Surdas and Kabir - there are poems with this bird.  

I got this from ChatGPT - a Kabir doha with the Chatak bird:

Hindi (transliteration):

jyoñ chatak barasā amṛt ko, jyoñ chakvi sūraj nīr,

tīnau tārajhū lakhata, tyoñ Kabīr guru bhīr.

So partridge(chakvi)  and cuckoo (chatak) in a verse of steadfast devotion.

I was intrigued with this and so sent ChatGPT  to search for Tamil references, and ta-da - there are Andal songs and Sangam poetry on the கடைக்குயில் (Kadaikkuḷil) or “rain cuckoo.”.  I quizzed and argued with the LLM as to why this could not be just the koel and how could we say this was the pied cuckoo - and pat came the answer:

"You’re right to question it, because Tamil poetry does distinguish between kuḷil / kuyil birds — and not all “cuckoos” in translation are the same species. Let’s carefully sort this out:

1. The Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus)

In Tamil, this is usually called குயில் (kuyil).

Famous in Sangam and later poetry for its sweet, musical call.

In love poetry, the koel often symbolizes the pleasures of spring, gardens, and the voice of joy.

Andal and later Bhakti poets also praise the kuyil for its melodious call.

👉 So when Tamil verses celebrate a sweet-voiced “kuyil”, that’s the Asian koel, not the Jacobin.

2. The Jacobin cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus)

Called கடைக்குயில் (Kadaikkuḷil) or “rain cuckoo.”

Its association is with the onset of rain and the legend of drinking only raindrops.

In Sangam akam poems (love/longing), this bird is used as a simile for yearning — just as it thirsts for rain, the heroine thirsts for her lover.

Its call is not considered melodious, but plaintive.

👉 So when verses talk about a bird that longs for rainwater and heralds the monsoon, that is the Jacobin cuckoo, not the koel.

Oh my, ok ok Chat GPT I believe you this time. Now share some nice poems, please.

A cautionary note also was that while these poems were probably modelled on the rain cuckoo, they were not "zoologically accurate" but more a mythical archetype, a poetic construct.
 

What a nice poetic wormhole I went down today!  So many possibilities - could it be that the resident population in the peninsula were originally migrants who stayed behind?  

This one is a Madras Day special.  And a Monsoon Beauty too.

An addition:  Sagarika says that in Bengal if you are ever so impolite as to not offer water to anyone, you shall receive the unamused chiding - "you will be reborn as chatak!"  

And more recently, Kalpana penned these lines for the rain cuckoo - an Early Bird challenge to create bookmarks - 

Here I come 
And here comes the rain 
My trips to the subcontinent 
Are never in vain.