entry smap 252: Birds and Food

Sunday market is very crowded and the parking is extremely limited so we park fairly close and walk the rest. the road we take has a few undeveloped plots along it with quite a lot of interesting bushes and small trees. one market day we passed this tree with some fruit i was unfamiliar with so i stopped to take a photo.

as luck would have it there was an Asian Koel Eudynamys scolopaceus (male) in the tree attempting to devour one of the fruits. it seems it had a dilemma in it's mouth, too big to swallow whole and not able to crush it in it's beak but not willing to let it go. it stood there for a while in the same pose, presumably trying to crush it or perhaps figure out what to do.

this is a bird we are very fond of and both see and hear it often at home, with it's iconic ko-el call. at dawn the call is louder and more like chattering.

the female is much shyer and more camouflaged with it's speckled feathers so we rarely see it in the trees but it likes to come down for some water, which we are very willing to provide. she lays her eggs in other bird's nests, (mostly house crows of which there are plenty here) that unknowingly take on the tasks of raising it.

meanwhile back on the way to the market, he was not shy at all as many people passed the tree but we didn't want to disturb it by standing close for long so we walked on to get some food for ourselves. so we never got to see how the situation resolved