Fork-tailed Drongo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Photo] Fork-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis). Author http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Linum License: public domain.

The Fork-tailed Drongo, Dicrurus adsimilis, is a drongo, a type of small passerine bird of the Old World tropics. They were previously classed as the family Dicruridae, but that has been much enlarged to include a number of largely Australasian groups, such as the Australasian fantails, monarchs and paradise flycatchers.

The Fork-tailed Drongo is a common and widespread resident breeder in Africa south of the Sahara. These insect-eating birds are usually found in open forests or bush. Two to four eggs are laid in a cup nest in a fork high in a tree.

These are aggressive and fearless birds, given their small size, and will attack much larger species, including birds of prey if their nest or young are threatened.

The male is mainly glossy black, although the wings are duller. It is large-headed and has the forked tail which gives the species its name. The female is similar but less glossy. The bill is black and heavy, and the eye is red.

The Fork-tailed Drongo is 25 cm long. It has short legs and sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. It flycatches or take prey from the ground and is attracted to bush fires.

The call is a metallic strink-strink.

The subspecies D. a. modestus (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Cameroon, Fernando Po, Central African Republic, Zaire, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Angola]]) is sometimes split as a separate species, the Pr??ncipe Drongo or Velvet-mantled Drongo D. modestus, (Hartlaub, 1849).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork-tailed_Drongo

The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.