Pookkotte Pakshikal/Birds of Pookkott Bird photos from our house at Pookkot ,Edappally Indian Cuckoo/Vishupakshi I was chitchatting with Sukumaran Ramakrishnan,my collegemate and now neighbour in Pookkott Lane at morning 7 Oclock ,when this bird ,which I have not seen before,flew down to the middle branch of chembakam tree. Though I had to clamber over two walls and a well with camera and 100-400 mm lense weighing 2 kg to get different frames, as the bird moved to the electric line and then Champa tree in front of Pookkot Bunglow ,it was worth it . Indian cuckoo is a medium sized cuckoo with grey upper parts and with broad black barring on the underside.They are solitary and shy birds and hence chances of sighting this bird is not very good.Their calls are loud with four notes which is interpreted in different languages and localities differently.Popular interpretations in Malayalam are: 1)Chakkakkuppundo 2)Achan Kombath,Amma Varambath ,Kallan chakkettu,kandal mindanda Normally we start hearing calls of Cuckoo nearing Vishu and hence the name Vishupakshi.They feed on caterpillars,insects and fruits. Indian cuckoo is a brood parasite ,laying its single egg in the in the nests of drongos and crows.It removes and eats an egg from the host ,before laying its own. Thanks to Sridhar Ananthanarayanan for helping to identify the bird
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 14:15:15 +0000
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