Asian Drongo-cuckoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Order: Cuculiformes
Family: Cuculidae

[Photo] Asian Drongo-cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris) at Ranthambhor, Rajasthan, India. "Read my Lips!". Source: Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/maneeshks/349277128/). Date: Taken on May 7, 2003. Author: maneeshks (www.flickr.com/photos/maneeshks/).

The Asian Drongo-cuckoo Surniculus lugubris is a species of cuckoo that resembles a Black Drongo. It can be easily distinguished by its straight beak and the white barred vent. It is a brood parasite on small babblers. It is not known how or whether the drongo-like appearance benefits this species.

It shares the genus Surniculus with the Philippine Drongo-cuckoo Surniculus velutinus. This is usually treated as a subspecies of S. lugubris, but can be separated as a species on the basis of vocalization and juvenile plumage.

Some recent work suggests that the species may need to be split into two recognized forms- Square-tailed and Fork-tailed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Drongo-cuckoo

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.