The true koels, ''Eudynamys'', are a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae ( ) family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes ( ). The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals, and anis. The coucals and anis are somet ...

s from

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. They are large

sexually dimorphic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

cuckoos that eat fruits and insects and have loud distinctive calls. They are

brood parasite Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American periodical cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest ...

s, laying their eggs in the nests of other species.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Eudynamys'' was introduced in 1827 by the English naturalists Nicholas Vigors and

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

. The name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''eu'' meaning "fine" with ''dunamis'' meaning "power" or "strength". The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

was designated as the Pacific koel by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...

in 1840. A molecular genetic study by Sorenson and Payne (2005) found that the closest relative of ''Eudynamys'' is the

dwarf koel The dwarf koel (''Microdynamis parva'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Microdynamis''. It is found in New Guinea, where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. Its ...

(''Microdynamis parva''), and beyond that the thick-billed cuckoo (''Pachycoccyx audeberti''). They found that the

long-tailed cuckoo The long-tailed koel (''Urodynamis taitensis''), also known as the long-tailed cuckoo, Pacific long-tailed cuckoo, sparrow hawk, home owl, screecher, screamer or in Māori, is a species of the Cuculidae bird family (the cuckoos). It is the on ...

(''Urodynamis taitensis'') of

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and the Pacific, which had earlier been placed in ''Eudynamys'' as ''E. taitensis'' and sometimes called the long-tailed koel, was more distantly related, along with other members of the tribe Cuculini, including the

white-crowned cuckoo The white-crowned cuckoo or white-crowned koel (''Caliechthrus leucolophus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It was formerly placed in the genus ''Cacomantis'' but is now the only species placed in the genus ''Caliechthrus''. It ...

(''Cacomantis leucolophus''), also known as the white-crowned koel. However, not all the evidence for the relationships was very strong and further research was required.Sorenson, Michael D.; Payne, Robert B. (2005). "A molecular genetic analysis of cuckoo phylogeny". In Payne, Robert B. ''The Cuckoos''. Oxford University Press. pp. 90, 93. .

Species

The

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of the common koel

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

is difficult and remains a matter of dispute. Some recognize only a single species (common koel, ''Eudynamys scolopaceus'', with ''melanorhynchus'' and ''orientalis'' as subspecies); some recognize two species (common koel, ''Eudynamys scolopaceus'', with ''orientalis'' as a subspecies, and black-billed koel, ''Eudynamys melanorhynchus''); and others recignize three species. Common koel may therefore refer to:

Sexual dimorphism

The female koel's plumage is banded and speckled in shades of brown. The evolutionary function is to camouflage her approach to her host's nest and enable her brood parasitism to go undetected.

Noisy miner The noisy miner (''Manorina melanocephala'') is a bird in the honeyeater family, Meliphagidae, and is endemic to eastern and southeastern Australia. This miner is a grey bird, with a black head, orange-yellow beak and feet, a distinctive yellow ...

and wattle birds have been observed feeding their fledglings. The male's

plumage is black, like a

raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...

. They are of a similar size to ravens and are known to have territories that overlap with ravens. They have also been observed being mobbed by noisy miners and wattle birds in the same way as ravens (egg predators) are. The male koel may be a raven

mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

enabling the female to approach the host's nest, either deliberately or opportunistically, while the host flock is engaged in (distracted) mobbing the male.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q262536 Cuculidae Birds of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Thomas Horsfield Taxa named by Nicholas Aylward Vigors