Australian Koel :: Eudynamys cyanocephala

The call of the Koel is a well known ‘Koh - el’. The male is glossy blue-black with a red eye and a long rounded tail. The female is the more showy of the pair with cocoa-brown, white-spotted back feathers, a lightly striped, white to chestnut underpart, black face, red eye and a white whisker mark above a black throat stripe. The juvenile looks like the female but with a brown eye and reddish head.

The Koel can be wary and elusive. It can be seen alone, in pairs or in parties in leafy, fruiting trees. The male can be very noisy when it is courting and will often engage other males in chase flights.

In spring to summer the Koel migrates from Indonesia and PNG to northeast Australia, but often flies as far south as Sydney.

Date: Taken on November 1, 2007
Source: Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/marj_k/1813137530/)
Author: marj k (www.flickr.com/photos/marj_k/)