The western square-tailed drongo (''Dicrurus occidentalis'') is a species of

drongo The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when ...

found in western

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, where it is distributed from

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

to the portion of

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 ...

west of the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

. Its preferred habitat is secondary forest and

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

. The western square-tailed drongo was first described in 2018 based on a genetic and morphological study of African drongos. Its closest relative is

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''), from which it diverged about 1.3 million years ago. It can be differentiated from Sharpe's drongo by the differing bill width and height, and can be differentiated from other west African drongo species by its dull purplish blue gloss. Despite these morphological differences, it was long overlooked by taxonomists as there has been less research on west African drongos than on drongos in other parts of Africa.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55753836

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 ...

Birds of West Africa