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 – is now usually reserved. Some authorities include the Sumatran drongo (''D. sumatranus'') in ''D. hottentottus'' as subspecies.

It is native from Bangladesh, India, and Bhutan through Indochina to China, Indonesia, and Brunei. Hair-crested drongos move in small flocks and are very noisy. The "spangled drongo", '' Dicrurus bracteatus'', is native on the east coast of Australia and its name is pejorative slang for a silly person. This may be due to its strange chattering and cackling.

Taxonomy

In 1760, French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the hair-crested drongo in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen that he mistakenly believed had been collected from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He used the French name ''Le choucas du Cap de Bonne Espérance'' and the Latin ''Monedula Capitis Bonae Spei''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his ''Systema Naturae'' for the 12th edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the hair-crested drongo. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name ''Corvus hottentottus'' and cited Brisson's work. The type locality was subsequently corrected to Chandannagar in West Bengal. The specific name ''hottentottus'' is from "Hottentot", a term formerly used for the Khoikhoi, a nomadic pastoral people of southwest Africa. This species is now placed in the genus ''Dicrurus'' that was introduced for the drongos by French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816.

Twelve subspecies are currently recognised, although some have been proposed as separate species:

*''D. h. hottentottus'' – India, central Myanmar and southern Indochina
*''D. h. brevirostris'' – central and southern hina, northern Myanmar, and northern Indochina
*''D. h. borneensis'' (Bornean spangled drongo) – Borneo and Maratua Island
*''D. h. guillemardi'' (Obi spangled drongo) – Obi Islands, North Maluku
*''D. h. pectoralis'' (Sula spangled drongo) – Sula Island, Philippines
*''D. h. suluensis'' (Sulu spangled drongo) – Sulu Archipelago, southwest Philippines
*''D. h. viridinitens'' (Mentawai Spangled Drongo) – Mentawai Islands, western Sumatra;
*''D. h. banggaiensis'' – Banggai Islands, eastern Sulawesi;
*''D. h. leucops'' – Sulawesi and nearby islands;
*''D. h. faberi'' – Panaitan Island in western Java
*''D. h. jentincki'' – Bali, eastern Java and some islands in the Java Sea
*''D. h. termeuleni'' – Seribu Islands and islands in Jakarta Bay, northern Java

Notes:

Several other former subspecies are now recognised as separate species or subspecies of other species in the species complex, the Tablas drongo (''Dicrurus menagei'') and the Palawan drongo (''Dicrurus palawanensis'', including subspecies ''cuyensis'').

References

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q74084

hair-crested drongo
Birds of China
Birds of South Asia
Birds of Southeast Asia
hair-crested drongo
hair-crested drongo