The Monsoon Bird is Here, Rains May Not Be Far Behind
Though typically the pied crested cuckoo is known to migrate northwards from southern parts of the Indian peninsula, and even from Africa ahead of the monsoon winds, and so its arrival is equated with the impending start of the rainy season
HYDERABAD: A super strong El Nino may be forming in the Pacific Ocean, with dire predictions about what it might do to the Indian monsoon season, but for the pied crested cuckoo, the warming of the oceans appears to be far away event that will not stop from heralding the monsoon over Telangana.
“There was a report of it being spotted on May 10 in the state,” Sriram Reddy, a birdwatcher and bird photographer said on Saturday. Pied crested cuckoos, or Papiha in Hindi and chataka in Telugu, have a repertoire of calls but can be identified by their ‘piu piu’ calls.
Though typically the pied crested cuckoo is known to migrate northwards from southern parts of the Indian peninsula, and even from Africa ahead of the monsoon winds, and so its arrival is equated with the impending start of the rainy season, there is also a small resident population of the bird in Telangana.
“Some of the birds stay back after their breeding season and these are the local population in the state. But they start their singing before the monsoon arrives. Even if you have not seen the bird but heard its call, then you can believe that the rains are not far behind, maybe just 15 to 20 days hence,” Asheesh Pittie, one of Hyderabad’s preeminent ornithologists said.
Incidentally, the India Meteorological Department on Saturday announced that the southwest monsoon has reached the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and had previously said that the monsoon is expected to enter over Kerala sometime in the last week of this month. Normally, it takes a few more days from then on for the rain to set in on Telangana.
“These cuckoos are highly vocal, and they become active now. Most people think they are all migrants but there are some local ones too, the ones that do not migrate back. One can hear them more and more in June and till the end of July normally. Whether they are local, or migrants, once they start calling, or become more and more visible, then the monsoons are not far behind,” Sriram Reddy said.