Rain water may be formed above 1,000-kms above in the sky to drop on the earth, where an India’s resident migratory bird, unique creatures on earth, waits for days or months to quench its thirst.

Named as Chatak (Hindi, Bengali & Marathi) or Pied Crested Cuckoo (English) or Bibeeha (Punjabi) or Erattatthalachi Kuyil (Malayalam) or Kondai Kuyil (Tamil) and Jacobin Cuckoo (French), it only drinks rain water drop by drop as it pours down. It does not drink any other water, not from the streams, rivers or collected rainwater despite thirsty.

But when it gets thirsty prays the rain lord Megh for rain and it is believed that its call is always answered. This clearly indicates that the heavenly relations can never be measured by distance.

 

Chatak is a slender, long-tailed, crested black and white bird of Myna size with a much longer tail. Adult cuckoos have a prominent crest and a long tapering tail. They are found in two distinct colour: black above with white under parts or completely black except for a small white patch on the wings. Juveniles are browner above and yellowish-white below.

It breeds in Africa, south of Sahara Desert and eastwards up to India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The cuckoo is a bird of shrubs, wetlands and cultivation and lives on insects, like grasshoppers, hairy caterpillars and berries. It is a short-distance migrant, since birds at more northerly latitudes and on higher ground are summer visitors, leave for warmer and wetter areas in winter. Thus, its local migrations are controlled by south-west monsoons.

Very noisy while breeding, it calls during moonlit nights, which is loud, rather plaintive, metallic piu-piu…pee-pee-piu…pee-pee-piu or just a tinkling piu.. piu.

In culture: This species is often quoted by saints as an example of an ideal spiritual seeker who ignores all things worldly and quenches its thirst by drinking directly from the heavens above. Mentioned widely in ancient Indian poetry as chātaka and for it thirsts for the rains in mythology. Poet Kalidas used it in his “Meghdoota” as a metaphor for deep yearning and this tradition continues in literary works.

Satya Churn Law, however noted that in Bengal its association with chataka was common iora, unlike Jacobin cuckoo suggested by European orientalists. A captive iora kept by him drank water only from dew and spray picked up from plant leaves, which proves it only drank raindrops and referred to skylarks, he noted.

Its white wing patch on black wing make it distinctive even in flight. Jacobin cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus), is a member of cuckoo order of birds found in Africa and Asia. It is partially migratory and in India, it has been considered a harbinger of monsoon rains due to timing of its arrival.

Identity: It was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1780. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by Francois-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D’Histoire Naturelle. This was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon’s text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon’s description included a scientific name but Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert in 1783 the coined bionomial name Cuculus jacobinus in his catalogue of Planches Enluminées, found in Coromandel Coast of southeast India.

The current genus Clamator was erected by German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup in 1829 with great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius). The name is Latin for “shouter” from clamare “to shout”. The specific epithet jacobinus and English name Jacobin refer to pied plumage which resembles black and white garments of monks belonging to Dominican Order. In France Dominicans, it was known as Jacobins.

In India, subspecies serratus (Sparrman, 1786) is a summer breeding visitor to northern India and is believed to migrate to southern Africa.

In Africa, subspecies serratus and pica (Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1833) show two phases, a pied phase with white or whitish below and a black phase where the only white is on the wing patch. Subspecies pica has been said to be the form that migrates between Africa and India. In the past, some other African subspecies have been suggested such as hypopinarus from South Africa and caroli from the Gabon.

Three subspecies with their breeding ranges are: C. j. serratus (1786), South Africa; C. j. pica (1833), Africa south of Sahara to north Zambia and Malawi, northwest India to Nepal and Myanmar & C. j. jacobinus (1783), south India, Sri Lanka, south Myanmar

Habitat: The species is distributed south of the Sahara in Africa and south of the Himalayas in India. Also found in Sri Lanka and parts of Myanmar. Within Africa, there are movements of the species although they are resident in tropical Africa. The east African population is migratory and moves over southern Arabia into India during April. The habitat of the species is mainly in thorny, dry scrub or open woodland avoiding areas of dense forest or extremely dry environments.

Behaviour: In breeding season, birds call from prominent perches and chase each other with slow wing-beats and pigeon like clapping flight. Courtship breeding has been observed in Africa. The species is a brood parasite and in India the host is mainly species of babblers in the genus Turdoides. The colour of eggs matches those of the host, typically turquoise blue.

Eggs are laid hurriedly in the morning into the nest of the host often dropped from above while the bird perches on the rim of the nest and over the host eggs often resulting in the cracking of one or more host eggs. In Africa, the males distract the host while the female lays the egg. Multiple eggs may be laid in the nest of a host and two young cuckoos were found to fledge successfully in several occasions. Many species are hosts in Africa.

These cuckoos feed on fruits and insects, including hairy caterpillars picked up from the ground. Caterpillars are pressed from end to end to remove the guts before they are swallowed.