Sri Lanka It's Happening

May 29, 2004

The Asian Koel is a roughly five times the size of a Sparrow, yet in a mini battle that took place out side my window between a pair of sparrows and a lady Koel, the sparrows emerged a clear winner. But they did get a little help from a passing Bul-bul.

I presume the battle took place because the Koel wanted to lay her eggs in the sparrow's nest. The koel is not known for making her own nest and has a particular affinity to the crow's nest. In fact the adult male Koel looks a lot like an adult crow from a distance.

Sri Lankan folklore says when the koel lays her eggs in another bird's nest it will look very much like the other 'nest eggs'. When they eventually hactch the chicks look pretty much like it's adapted siblings and the 'surrogate' parents will feed it for quite some time. Eventually as the chicks grow, the koel begins to look somewhat different from the other hatchlings so mama bird eventually chases it out. Some people also say that baby koels will push other chicks out of the nest.

When the koel landed on the sparrow nest, both birds came and attacked her with gusto and she was forced to fly off into a near by branch. It was there that a Bul-bul attacked her 'en-passant'. That' literaly what happened, the Bul bul was going off on some errand, the koel was in it's path and it just swooped down and gave the koel a peck before continuing on it's merry way. It must be something to do with 'my enemy's enemy is my best friend'

While the battle was raging I tried to take a few photographs, but I am not an expert on action photography let's see how they develop. The lady in the picture is a kinsman of the one that was involved in the fight, the sparrow is a male and the same one involved in the battle but caught on film on an earlier date.

Posted by raditha at May 29, 2004 4:16 AM