Pied cuckoo or Jacobin cuckoo is a migratory bird that comes to India from South Africa by April and stays during monsoons. It returns after a breeding period . This bird is a brood parasite and the host in India is Jungle Babbler. Jacobin cuckoo generally lays it's eggs in the nests of a babbler, the eggs are turquoise blue, matching the colour of babbler eggs. Red vented bulbul is another common host and when this Jacobin cuckoo lays eggs in bulbul's nest the colour of the eggs is white. How clever nature has made these birds.
The call is a sweet piu piu song and I was fortunate to spot the bird only after hearing this call. I found a couple perched on the higher branches on my drumstick tree and it was a challenge to photograph them in dense foliage.
This was the first sighting of this bird for me, glad it was in my own garden. No decent pictures but I would still show off :-) So glad to see them here.
See the crest as visible from ground level...
And the head turns...
The white wing patch...
The leaves are helping play hide and seek...
May be the nests of babblers and red vented bulbuls in the garden are the reason these brooding parasites are here. It will be god to watch them here if they keep coming.
Keeping my fingers crossed. They will return if they have spotted a prospective nest around here.
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