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The square-tailed drongo-cuckoo (''Surniculus lugubris'') is a species of cuckoo that resembles a black drongo. In the past the species ''S. lugubris'' included the subspecies ''dicruroides'' which is now treated as a separate species the fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo. The species in its restricted sense is found along the Himalayas extending east into Southeast Asia. The calls are series of piercing sharp whistles rising in pitch but shrill and choppily delivered.
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Description
It can be easily distinguished by its downcurved beak and the white barred vent and outer undertail, and the tail only notched with slightly flared tips. In flight a white wing-stripe is visible from below. It is abrood parasite
Brood parasites are animals that rely on others to raise their young. The strategy appears among birds, insects and fish. The brood parasite manipulates a host, either of the same or of another species, to raise its young as if it were its own ...
on small babbler
Babbler may refer to:
* Old World babbler, a large family of mostly Old World passerine birds
* Australo-Papuan babbler, passerine birds endemic to Australia-New Guinea
* Babbler (software)
Babbler is a French software company founded in Septem ...
s. It is not known how or whether the drongo-like appearance benefits this species but it is suspected that it aids in brood-parasitism just as hawk-cuckoos appear like hawks.
The square-tailed drongo-cuckoo was formerly considered conspecific with the fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo (together known as the Asian drongo-cuckoo), but vocal and morphological differences suggested that the species should be split.Rasmussen, P. C.
Pamela Cecile Rasmussen (born October 16, 1959) is an American ornithologist and expert on Asian birds. She was formerly a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and is based at the Michigan State University. She ...
& Anderton, J. C. 2005 Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide
''Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide'' by Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C. Anderton is a two-volume ornithological handbook, covering the birds of South Asia, published in 2005 (second edition in 2012) by the Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Ed ...
. Smithsonian and Lynx EdicionsFu-Min, Lei & Robert B. Payne (2002) Territorial songs of the drongo cuckoo complex (''Surniculus lugubris'' & ''S. velutinus''). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 50(1):205-21/ref> That treatment is followed here.
References
square-tailed drongo-cuckoo Birds of Sri Lanka Birds of Southeast Asia square-tailed drongo-cuckoo {{Cuculiformes-stub