Updated 26
Sep 2018, 10:06pm
While
some people think it's an old wives' tale, many swear black and blue that the
haunting cry of a "storm bird" indicates rain is on the way.
The storm
bird — more properly known as the eastern koel — is a distinctive-looking large
black bird with a red eye.
A member
of the cuckoo family, every spring koels fly into Queensland and New South
Wales from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to breed.
Australian
Birdlife magazine editor Sean Dooley was sceptical about whether their call was
an indicator rain was on the way.
"It's
easy to see why you'd think that they are calling the rain in, but they're just
waiting as much as we are for it to arrive," he said.
"I
don't really ascribe any magical rainmaking powers to koels, they're just
really canny at working out the weather systems."
Mr Dooley
said koels arrived in spring to breed over summer.
"Their
arrival coincides, quite smartly from the bird's perspective, with the arrival
of the monsoon or the summer rains, which bring a lot more growth and a lot
more insect life," he said.
"So
the koel's a pretty smart bird, they time their run from Indonesia and other
places to arrive on the east coast just as the summer rains start to hit."
He said
the haunting call was more about sex than pending rainfall.
"When
the male arrives in Australia they will find a patch, usually in fruiting
trees, establish a territory and start calling trying to attract any females
that have just flown in," he said.
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