Sirkeer Malkoha or Sirkeer Cuckoo (Taccocua leschenaultii) -लाल चोचीचा म...

Sirkeer Malkoha or Sirkeer Cuckoo

India has three types of Malkohas and all the three are absolutely gorgeous birds. The blue faced malkoha , Green billed Malkoha and the Sirkeer malkoha. Among the three the Sirkeer is the most elusive of the lot. We have seen the Sirkeer several time and we have even managed to take pictures but creating a video was proving difficult. They are secretive and shy bird who hardly makes any sound. Add to that,  their behavior of running at the base of the impenetrable scrub jungle.

A week ago we were lucky to get the opportunity to make the video.

While we were birding in the scrub jungles an unusual call attracted our attention. We quickly approached the location and found that the call was that of a jungle babbler. Confused about the new call we were about to turn away but a brown bird was running away into the grasses. There goes our Sirkeer. 

We moved carefully and sat on a rock overlooking a mud wall of an abandoned quarry. He came out and started foraging and we were happy to make a video while he was busy.

After a few moments he went away but came back again and took a perch on a tree and made a sound. It was very short and we could record that. But this second time we got beautiful look at the the tail feathers of the Malkoha.