Asian koel
Scientific name: Eudynamys scolopaceus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Overview
The Asian koel is a member of the cuckoo family of birds, the Cuculidae. It is found in the Indian subcontinent, China, and Southeast Asia. It forms a superspecies with the closely related black-billed koels, and Pacific koels which are sometimes treated as subspecies. The Asian koel, like many of its related cuckoo kin, is a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of crows and other hosts, who raise its young. They are unusual among the cuckoos in being largely frugivorous as adults. The name koel is echoic in origin with several language variants. The bird is a widely used symbol in Indian, Pakistani and Nepali poetry.
From the Wikipedia article “Asian koel”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Least concern on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021.3.
Where it lives
The Catalogue of Life records it in: Southern Asia.
Common names
Also known in English as Common Koel, Western Koel.
Names in other languages (12)
- Arabic
- زعاق آسيوي
- Bengali
- এশীয় কোকিল
- Chinese
- 噪鹃
- French
- Coucou koël
- German
- Asienkoel, Indischer Koel
- Hindi
- कोयल
- Indonesian
- tuwur asia
- Japanese
- オニカッコウ
- Persian
- جارزن آسیایی
- Portuguese
- coel-asiático, koel-ocidental
- Russian
- Коэль
- Spanish
- Koel occidental
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names and range.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q798401, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “Asian koel”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — Challiyan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — Shyamal, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026