Talk:Greater coucal

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The Bird in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.110.149.233 (talk) 23:48, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

In Mekong Delta of Vietnam, this bird is called "Bim Bip", because its call sounds beep beep beep beep a while after a tirade of coop coop coop coop coop. People here associate the call beep beep beep beep with the rise of water in estuaries, tributaries and canals. It is thought to have medicinal virtue in curing broken bones. People steep the fledglings into strong alcohol to make the nostrum for bone and body aching,usually after deliberately breaking the bones of the chicks several times, believing that the parent birds have to cure them with special herbs, and the medicinal substance still remains in the chick bodies. Folk songs and lullabies carrying the lyrics 'the crow pheasant call for the rising water' were so familiar with generations prior to the advent of electronic musics!! Hong Thanh Nhan of Soc Trang.

Greater Coucal behaviour over water
I saw, on two consecutive days, a bird fly to the approximate centre of my pond, hover briefly then swoop to the water, touching and breaking the surface, before flying away.

The bird fits the description of a greater coucal, but I cannot find an example of this behaviour anywhere. So what are these birds doing, and are they greater coucals?

The pond is approximately 20m x 40m and was stocked with a few hundred tilapia fingerlings a week ago. There is as yet not much vegetative cover and the centre is completely devoid of cover. There are several adult frogs and some water insects. AdamNealis (talk) 09:29, 8 August 2019 (UTC)

I neglected to mention the pond is in the north-east of Thailand. AdamNealis (talk) 09:31, 8 August 2019 (UTC)