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The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of
passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...
birds of the
Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...
tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single
genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when perched. They have forked tails and some have elaborate tail decorations. They feed on
insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...
and small
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s, which they catch in flight or on the ground. Some species are accomplished mimics and have a variety of alarm calls, to which other birds and animals often respond. They are known to utter hoax alarm calls that scare other animals off food, which the drongo then claims.


Taxonomy

The genus ''Dicrurus'' was introduced by French ornithologist
Louis Pierre Vieillot Louis Pierre Vieillot (10 May 1748, Yvetot – 24 August 1830, Sotteville-lès-Rouen) was a French ornithologist. Vieillot is the author of the first scientific descriptions and Linnaean names of a number of birds, including species he collect ...
for the drongos in 1816. The
type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
was subsequently designated as the balicassiao (''Dicrurus balicassius'') by English zoologist
George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...
in 1841. The name of the genus combines the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
words ''dikros'' "forked" and ''oura'' "tail". "Drongo" is originally from the indigenous language of
Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
, where it refers to local species; it is now used for all members of the family. This family now includes only the genus ''Dicrurus'', although Christidis and Boles (2007) expanded the family to include the subfamilies Rhipidurinae ( Australasian fantails), Monarchinae ( monarch and paradise flycatchers), and Grallininae (magpie larks). The family was formerly treated as having two genera, ''Chaetorhynchus'' and ''Dicrurus''. The genus ''Chaetorhynchus'' contains a single species, the
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...
-endemic '' C. papuensis''. On the basis of both morphological and genetic differences, it is now placed with the fantails (
Rhipiduridae The family Rhipiduridae are small insectivorous birds of Australasia, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent that includes the fantails and silktails. Taxonomy and systematics There are four genera classified within the family: * Subfamily ...
) and renamed from the pygmy drongo to the drongo fantail. The genus ''Dicrurus'' contains 30 species: *
Common square-tailed drongo The common square-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus ludwigii''), formerly the square-tailed drongo, is a passerine bird in the family Dicruridae. It is a common resident breeder in parts of southern Africa. These insectivorous birds are usually found i ...
, ''Dicrurus ludwigii'' – formerly square-tailed drongo *
Western square-tailed drongo The western square-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus occidentalis'') is a species of drongo found in western Africa, where it is distributed from Senegal to the portion of Nigeria west of the Niger River. Its preferred habitat is secondary forest and gal ...
, ''Dicrurus occidentalis'' – first described in 2018 *
Sharpe's drongo Sharpe's drongo (''Dicrurus sharpei'') is a species of drongo found in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is distributed from southern South Sudan and western Kenya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Nigeria east of the Niger River and south of ...
, ''Dicrurus sharpei'' – split from ''D. ludwigii'' *
Shining drongo The shining drongo (''Dicrurus atripennis'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, ...
, ''Dicrurus atripennis'' *
Fork-tailed drongo The fork-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus adsimilis''), also called the common drongo, African drongo or savanna drongo, is a small bird that can be found in a very substantial range, from the Sahel to South Africa, excepting the Congolian rainforests a ...
, ''Dicrurus adsimilis'' *
Glossy-backed drongo The glossy-backed drongo (''Dicrurus divaricatus'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It occurs in sub-Saharan Africa from south Mauritania and Senegambia across to Somalia and northern Kenya. The glossy-backed drongo was describ ...
, ''Dicrurus divaricatus'' – split from fork-tailed drongo *
Velvet-mantled drongo The velvet-mantled drongo (''Dicrurus modestus'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is found from Nigeria and Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_ma ...
, ''Dicrurus modestus'' *
Fanti drongo The Fanti drongo (''Dicrurus atactus'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is found in sub-Sahara Africa from Sierra Leone to southwestern Nigeria. The Fanti drongo was described by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser ...
, ''Dicrurus atactus'' – split from velvet-mantled drongo *
Grand Comoro drongo The Grand Comoro drongo (''Dicrurus fuscipennis'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is endemic to Comoros. The bird is glossy black with some matte brown contrasts and a forked tail. It is approximately 24 cm long and ha ...
, ''Dicrurus fuscipennis'' *
Aldabra drongo The Aldabra drongo (''Dicrurus aldabranus'') is a species of bird in the drongo family Dicruridae. It is endemic to Seychelles, where it occurs only on the island of Aldabra. It has a small population of only around 1000 birds.Skerrett A, Bullo ...
, ''Dicrurus aldabranus'' *
Crested drongo The crested drongo (''Dicrurus forficatus'') is a passerine bird in the family Dicruridae. It is black with a bluish-green sheen, a distinctive crest on the forehead and a forked tail. There are two subspecies; ''D. f. forficatus'' is endemic t ...
, ''Dicrurus forficatus'' *
Mayotte drongo The Mayotte drongo (''Dicrurus waldenii'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is endemic to Mayotte. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, subtropical or ...
, ''Dicrurus waldenii'' * Black drongo, ''Dicrurus macrocercus'' * Ashy drongo, ''Dicrurus leucophaeus'' * White-bellied drongo, ''Dicrurus caerulescens'' * Crow-billed drongo, ''Dicrurus annectens'' *
Bronzed drongo The bronzed drongo (''Dicrurus aeneus'') is a small Indomalayan bird belonging to the drongo group. They are resident in the forests of the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. They capture insects flying in the shade of the forest canopy by m ...
, ''Dicrurus aeneus'' * Lesser racket-tailed drongo, ''Dicrurus remifer'' * Balicassiao, ''Dicrurus balicassius'' *
Hair-crested drongo The hair-crested drongo (''Dicrurus hottentottus'') is an Asian bird of the family Dicruridae. This species was formerly considered conspecific with '' Dicrurus bracteatus'', for which the name "spangled drongo" – formerly used for both &n ...
, ''Dicrurus hottentottus'' * Tablas drongo, ''Dicrurus menagei'' – split from hair-crested drongo * Palawan drongo, ''Dicrurus palawanensis'' – split from hair-crested drongo * Sumatran drongo, ''Dicrurus sumatranus'' – split from hair-crested drongo * Wallacean drongo, ''Dicrurus densus'' – split from hair-crested drongo * Sulawesi drongo, ''Dicrurus montanus'' * Spangled drongo, ''Dicrurus bracteatus'' * Paradise drongo, ''Dicrurus megarhynchus'' *
Andaman drongo The Andaman drongo (''Dicrurus andamanensis'') is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. The species is endemic to the Andaman Islands of the Indian Ocean. There are two subspecies, the nominate race being found across the main islands of ...
, ''Dicrurus andamanensis'' *
Greater racket-tailed drongo The greater racket-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus paradiseus'') is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dic ...
, ''Dicrurus paradiseus'' * Sri Lanka drongo, ''Dicrurus lophorinus'' – split from paradise drongo The family Dicruridae is most likely of Indo-Malayan origin, with a colonization of Africa about 15 million years ago (Mya). Dispersal across the
Wallace Line The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley that separates the biogeographical realms of Asia and Wallacea, a tran ...
into Australasia is estimated to have been more recent, around 6 Mya.


Characteristics

These insectivorous birds are usually found in open forests or bush. Most are black or dark grey in colour, sometimes with metallic tints. They have long, forked tails; some Asian species have elaborate tail decorations. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched, like a shrike. They flycatch or take prey from the ground. Some drongos, especially the greater racket-tailed drongo, are noted for their ability to mimic other birds and even mammals. Two to four
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s are laid in a nest high in a tree. Despite their small size, they are aggressive and fearless, and will attack much larger species if their nests or young are threatened. Several species of animals and birds respond to drongos' alarm calls, which often warn of the presence of a
predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
. Fork-tailed drongos in the
Kalahari desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
use alarm calls in the absence of a predator to cause animals to flee and abandon food, which they eat, getting up to 23% of their food this way. They not only use their own alarm calls, but also imitate those of many species, either their victim's or that of another species to which the victim responds. If the call of one species is not effective, perhaps because of habituation, the drongo may try another; 51 different calls are known to be imitated. In one test on pied babblers, the babbler ignored an alarm call repeated three times when no danger was present, but continued to respond to different calls. Researchers have considered the possibility that these drongos possess
theory of mind In psychology, theory of mind refers to the capacity to understand other people by ascribing mental states to them (that is, surmising what is happening in their mind). This includes the knowledge that others' mental states may be different fro ...
, not fully shown in any animal other than humans.


Insult

The word "drongo" is used in
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
as a mild form of insult meaning "idiot" or "stupid fellow". This usage derives from an Australian racehorse of the same name (apparently after the spangled drongo, ''D. bracteatus'') in the 1920s that never won despite many
place Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own Municipality, municipal government * "Place", a type of street or road ...
s. The word also has been frequently used among friends and can be used in a casual or serious tone.


Gallery

Greater-racket-tailed-drongo-khao-yai.webm, A
greater racket-tailed drongo The greater racket-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus paradiseus'') is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dic ...
preening at
Khao Yai National Park Khao Yai National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติเขาใหญ่, , ) is a national park in Thailand. Established in 1962 as Thailand's first national park, it is the third largest national park in Thailand. Descri ...
, Thailand A flying greater racket-tailed drongo.jpg, A greater racket-tailed drongo visiting '' Erythrina'' flowers at
Satchari National Park Satchari National Park ( bn, সাতছড়ি) is a national park in Habiganj District, Bangladesh. After the 1974 Wild Life Preservation Act, in 2005 Satchari National Park was built on of land. Literally 'Satchari' in Bengali means 'Sev ...
in Bangladesh Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo at nest - Kang Kra Chan - Thailand S4E4944 (14278976543) (2).jpg, A lesser racket-tailed drongo incubating at
Kaeng Krachan National Park Kaeng Krachan National Park ( th, อุทยานแห่งชาติแก่งกระจาน, , ) is the largest national park of Thailand. It is on the border with Burma, contiguous with the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve. It is a pop ...
in Thailand


References


Further reading

* *


External links


Drongo videos
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Authority control * Australian slang