Eastern Koel (Eudynamys orientalis cyanocephalus)

Conservation status: least concern

Battle threatened but not engaged.

I had never before witnessed this: two male Koels in tense, apparently ritualised, behaviour: facing off, close-to, neither prepared to back down.

For more than three hours they hardly moved within the tree, wing flicking matched to head flipping, side-to-side, the one or other calling at long intervals, triggering dramatic poses: wings spread, tails fanned, heads cocked, eyes ALWAYS on each other.

One might dart in, the other leap away, before posturing began again. Absolutely intent, they ignored me completely.