Comments on: It’s drizzling cuckoos!

By: Udiyaman Shukla

Udiyaman Shukla — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:34:22 +0000

I was able to spot the first one in Delhi-14/06/09.

By: Prashanth

Prashanth — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:41:34 +0000

Regarding the “Male Godda” transliteration of the Soliga name, I had a few comments:
The Soligas refer to a bird as Malegodda. However, I believe that this may actually be the Blackbird, referring to the ‘foolishness’ of the bird, building its nest in the rains. Often, when Soligas are asked about the name of a bird associated with the rain, they say this bird, and it gets transliterated to Pied Cuckoo. Also, when I tried asking the more elderly tribal people, they said that “Malegodda” is often in small flocks in winters and frequents moister and higher forests.

By: Shriram Vaijapurkar

Shriram Vaijapurkar — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:57:22 +0000

In Maharashtra, in Marathi local language we call this bird as “Pavasha” or “Pausha”-the Bird which gives intimation of Paus or rain. Pavasha sings a song “Perte vha! Perte vha!!” means “start sowing, Rain is comming!”
The people know that It is a rain bird.