The Fanti drongo (''Dicrurus atactus'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is found in sub-Sahara Africa from

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

to southwestern

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. The Fanti drongo was described by the American ornithologist

Harry C. Oberholser Harry Church Oberholser (June 25, 1870 – December 25, 1963) was an American ornithologist. Biography Harry Oberholser was born to Jacob and Lavera S. Oberholser on June 25, 1870, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia University, but did ...

in 1899 from a specimen collected in the

Fanti Fanti is an Italian surname. Notable people with this name include: * Bartolomeo Fanti (1428–1495), beatified Italian Carmelite priest *Fausto Fanti (1978–2014), Brazilian actor, comedian and musician * Franco Fanti (1924–2007), Italian Olympi ...

district of Ghana. He considered it as a

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the

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'') and introduced the

trinomial name In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary ...

''Dicrurus modestus atactus''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''atactus'' is from 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 ...

ατακτος ''ataktos'' "disorderly" or "lawless". Based on the results of a

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2018, it is now treated as a separate species.

References

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 ...

Birds of West Africa

{{Dicruridae-stub