A modern fable: Learn from this cuckoo on how to beat the Coronavirus

The male Asian koel’s pleading koo-oo is the avian world’s answer to Cliff Richard’s Ocean Deep. Now, the more challenging thing to do would be rubbing eyeballs with the koel’s cousin — the elusive blue-faced malkoha, also a resident species in Chennai. Endemic to peninsular India and Sri Lanka, the blue-faced malkoha’s love story also unfolds between March and August, but usually away from the glare of human observation. The blue-faced malkoha’s tail being long, it has to manipulate its body in a manner enabling it to maintain balance,” says V. Santharam, ornithologist and director, Institute of Bird Studies, Rishi Valley. Unlike the Asian koel, the blue-faced malkoha is non-parasitic, and expends its energies on raising a family, not the least of which is assembling a nest inside a bush, usually one of the thistle variety.