AnimalvsAnimal
Asian koel🐦

Photo: Challiyan · CC BY-SA 4.0

SpeciesCuculiformesCuculidae
Birds

🐦Asian Koel

Eudynamys scolopaceus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The Asian koel is a member of the cuckoo family of birds, the Cuculidae. It is found in the Indian subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and Pacific koels which are sometimes treated as subspecies. The Asian koel, like many of its related cuckoo kin, is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of crows and other hosts, who raise its young. They are unusual among the cuckoos in being largely frugivorous as adults. The name koel is echoic in origin with several language variants. The bird is a widely used symbol in Indian, Pakistani and Nepali poetry.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Photos
2
Measurements
9
vs you
≈ 1/320th of your weight
Also called
Common Koel, Western Koel
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendStable
Key measurements
Body mass
0.19 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
not recorded
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Asian Koel

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
0.19 kg
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tail length
0.18 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.2 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.03 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.03 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Trophic level
Herbivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Woodland
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Insessorial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
0.2 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Asian Koel yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force, maximum lifespan.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderCuculiformes
  5. ›familyCuculidae
  6. ›genusEudynamys
  7. ›speciesEudynamys scolopaceus
Full lineage
  1. orderSauria
  2. classBirds · Aves
  3. orderCuculiformes
  4. genusEudynamys
All 11 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. orderCuculiformes
  11. genusEudynamys
More

More about the Asian Koel

In other languages
Koel (da), Eudynamys scolopaceus (ca), kukačka koel (cs), Asienkoel (de), Eudynamys scolopaceus (es), intianvariskäki (fi) … and 23 more languages
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