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Sounds like trouble

9/12/2024

11 Comments

 
PictureThe most annoying bird call in Australia ... Photo: Liane Arno
By Catherine Watson
 
ALL over Wonthaggi we heard him. Liane and Matt heard him in Wishart Street, Stephen heard him in Campbell Street, I heard him in Reed Crescent.  Martin and Vilya didn't notice him until I pointed him out then they couldn't unhear him. 

He was just outside my window. Or perhaps he was in the neighbour’s willow myrtle. Or the gum tree across the road. Or down the back lane? I never spotted him and the sound came from every direction.


Two trilled notes, no pause, a slight inflexion. “Oh yeah?” “Oh yeah? Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  …” rising gradually in register and volume until the final shrieking “OH YEAH?!”

Then sudden silence. Fifteen seconds of blessed relief. Then he starts again. The same question over and over and bloody over.

​At first I thought some insane doting grandparent had bought their grandkid a tin whistle, but it went on from dawn till dusk, day after day. After a week of torture, I asked Google “What’s the most annoying bird call in Australia?”


AI didn’t hesitate. “The Eastern Koel, also known as the Common Koel.”

​He’s jet black, with crimson eyes. She’s the handsomer of the two, a brown bird with white spots, plus she doesn’t make that damned racket.


Bird Life Australia informs me that the Eastern Koel is a large migratory cuckoo which flies from New Guinea, Indonesia and possibly the Philippines to breed in Australia. They’re common in Queensland and NSW but have only recently been seen in Victoria.
They seek him here, they seek him there
That damned elusive eastern koel. 
So his chances of finding a lady friend in Wonthaggi aren’t flash. Does that mean we have to endure that lovelorn cry all summer?

Oh, this is interesting. “Adults are rather shy and they are heard much more than seen. In contrast to the adults, fledglings can be very conspicuous as they beg loudly for food from their foster parents.”

Foster parents? Of course. They’re cuckoos, meaning they find a nest, turf out the resident eggs or chicks and lay their own to be hatched and raised by some poor cuckolded birds of another species.  

Well, they’d better not lay them in a blackbird nest in a tree near me.

Then Liane emails me. “The varmint is in our back garden” and a photo to prove it.

“You shoot him and I’ll eat him,” I email back. And I mean it. The last bird I ate was in 2007. He was the rooster in our neighbourhood chook co-op. A comfy set up, plenty of tucker and all the hens he could possibly desire. A rooster that had won Tatts, or at least second division.

And he had to go and ruin it all. He always treated Frank with great civility.  “How ya goin, mate.” “Yeah. Good, mate.” You know the way blokes talk. But every time Vilya or I went in to collect the eggs he’d fly at us like a kickboxer, long talons reaching to rake our faces.

We made Frank dispatch that misogynistic rooster, which was a bit cruel because they were sort of buddies. I never asked how he did it but when the job was done I ate a rooster leg and felt no regret.

And I will eat that damned elusive koel if I get a chance. Though I suspect he has found a lady friend since all has been quiet for a week.

Update, December 10
​He’s back! “Oh yeah? Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  Oh yeah?  OH YEAH?” Must have been on holiday in Wishart Street. 
11 Comments
Frank W Schooneveldt
13/12/2024 12:06:47 pm

Thank you Catherine for the story.
The Eastern Koel is extending its range and now moving into suburban areas for two reasons. Firstly the abundance of fruit trees in suburban gardens and secondly the large number of Wattlebirds and their nests. The Eastern koel likes to lay its eggs in Red Wattlebird nests.
The female Eastern Koel arrives after the male. Hence all his calling trying to find a mate.

Reply
Susan Hall
13/12/2024 12:18:21 pm

He has been visiting Inverloch last few days.must get around.!!

Reply
Jackie Petrie
13/12/2024 12:28:48 pm

A few months ago I heard that bird call. It drove me nuts trying to find out what kind of bird it was. I knew that I had heard the call in Queensland but never in Victoria.
Thank you for the story. I actually like it's call.

Reply
Leonie and Ross Smith
13/12/2024 04:47:26 pm

Great article Catherine. The koel been visiting us in Hagelthorn Street for a few years. We have had both the male and female in our backyard driving the red wattlebirds nuts! and us.

Reply
Jane Jobe
13/12/2024 10:18:46 pm

I grew up in Queensland with that call. We called it the “storm bird”. I must be one of the few who love it! I first noticed it on Millowl two years ago.

Reply
Faith
14/12/2024 03:42:49 pm

Put on some music to drown it out! Better than a leaf blower or a Jack hammer or a pneumatic drill!!

Reply
Julie Thomas
14/12/2024 08:29:53 pm

Oh, I do agree Faith. Persistent as his call is (and I'm glad he's stopped too!) I will take him over a leaf blower any day!

Reply
Natasha
15/12/2024 06:32:58 am

Any update on location? Going out to see if we can see him today

Reply
Eileen Callaghan
15/12/2024 12:25:38 pm

Thanks for your research Catherine. I must admit I don't mind the call, it's just infuriating that he hides so well. Last summer, while walking in Baxter Wetlands I spied a female and heard a male. When I saw the female i thought it was a hawk, but the call certainly didn't match. When I was over at Bunnings a couple of weeks ago I heard the call...they obviously like the tall trees.

Reply
Jan Fleming
16/12/2024 07:00:12 pm

A few years ago we would travel to Eden every year bird watching. I loved the sound of the Koel.
A couple of years ago I heard and saw the Koel in a Norfolk Pine next to PICAL on Phillip Island, what a surprise.

Reply
Johanna Radford
28/12/2024 07:36:54 pm

He’s been in Sandy Mount Ave Inverloch for the last week, very persistent!

Reply



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