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

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 sometimes separ ...

s from

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and the Pacific. They are large sexually dimorphic cuckoos that eat fruits and insects and have loud distinctive calls. They are

brood parasite Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own ...

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

Taxonomy

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

Nicholas Vigors Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – 26 October 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician. He popularized the classification of birds on the basis of the quinarian system. Early life Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow on 1785 as fi ...

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 ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

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

type species In 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 species that contains the biological type specimen ...

was designated as the

Pacific koel The Pacific koel (''Eudynamys orientalis''), also known as the eastern koel or formerly Common Koel, is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. In Australia, it is colloquially known as the ''rainbird'' or ''stormbird'', as its call is usual ...

by George Robert Gray in 1840. A molecular genetic study by Sorenson and Payne (2005) found that the closest relative of ''Eudynamys'' is the dwarf koel (''Microdynamis parva''), and beyond that the thick-billed cuckoo (''Pachycoccyx audeberti''). They found that the long-tailed cuckoo (''Urodynamis taitensis'') of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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 (''Cacomantis leucolophus'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It was originally described by Salomon Müller as ''Cuculus leucolophus''. It was later placed in the monotypic genus ''Ca ...

(''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 Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of the common koel complex is difficult and remains a matter of dispute, with some only recognizing a single species (common koel, ''Eudynamys scolopaceus'', with ''melanorhynchus'' and ''orientalis'' as subspecies), two species (common koel, ''Eudynamys scolopaceus'', with ''orientalis'' as a subspecies, and black-billed koel, ''Eudynamys melanorhynchus'') or three species (as done below).

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 sexually dimorphic plumage is black, like a

raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...

. 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 MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

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 *