Pied Cuckoo
It is also known as Jacobin cuckoo or Pied crested cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus). It is a member of
the cuckoo family.
Pied cuckoo is a medium-sized, slim black and white cuckoo
as its name indicate. The distinctive crest, white wing patch on the black wing
and the pattern make it unmistakable even in flight. But what gave out its
presence without even seeing it, is its ringing series of whistling call. They
are very vocal during the breeding season. We generally observed these birds in
pairs or in group of 3 to 4. They call from prominent perches and chase each
other with low-level flight in slow wing-beats, mostly hunting near the ground
level. We witnessed babblers, myna, and crows sometime trying to drive them
away as the species is a brood parasite.
Here in Gujarat Pied cuckoo locally known as the Chataka (Gujarati:
ચાતક). It has been said to be migrates between Africa and India.
Pied cuckoo arrives in Gujarat in late summer, mostly in end of the May. Arrival
of Pied cuckoo considered as a harbinger of the monsoon rains due to the timing
of its arrival. Indian mythology and poetry mentioned Pied cuckoo as a bird
awaits for rains eagerly with a beak towards sky to quench its thirst.
Therefore, on these two basis pre-monsoon arrival and mythology, local people strongly
believe that the "Chatak" only drank raindrops, which is not entirely
true. Here at our residence in Patan, pied cuckoo regularly visits our
makeshift water pots to drink water. Before drinking water it literally shouts
its present, mostly came in pairs. One is drinking while other is perched
nearby. Generally they are feeding on Painted grasshoppers, often caterpillars
which are present in numerous number during this season. They stayed here in
whole monsoon season, disappear in early winter.
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