Saturday, June 20, 2020

Bird watching - Black Drongo

Black Drongo



A slim and agile glossy black bird with long deeply forked tail. Its bill and legs fashionably all black. The bird is a familiar sight in India, and attracts attention with its graceful shape and fearless attitude. A familiar bird of open country, usually perched on telegraph wires or attending on grazing cattle.

Local names : Kolsa, Kalkalachi ( Hindi)
                     Anaranchi (Malayalam)
                     Karuvattu vali (Tamil)


It feeds on insects, and is common in open agricultural areas and light forest throughout its range. They are aggressive and fearless birds, they will attack much larger species that enter their nesting territory, including crows and birds of prey. This behavior led to their former name of king crow. They fly with strong flaps of the wing and are capable of fast manoeuvres that enable them to capture flying insects. With short legs, they sit upright on thorny bushes, bare perches or electricity wires. 




The nest is a cup made with a thin layer of sticks placed in the fork of branch, and is built in a week by both the male and female. The usual clutch is three or rarely four eggs laid in a cup nest placed in the fork of an outer branch of tree. Large leafy trees such as the jackfruit are preferred. The eggs are pale cream to red with spots and markings. The eggs are incubated by both parents and hatch after 14 to 15 days. Nestlings are brooded for the first five days, after which the young are capable of maintaining a fairly constant body temperature



Its scientific name is Dicrurus macrocercus, where Dicrurus is derived from the Greek words dikros meaning forked, ouros meaning tailed, while macrocercus is from the Greek makrokerkos, with makros meaning long and kerkos meaning tail. In short, the bird has a long and gracefully deep forked tail, a characteristic feature of most Drongos in India.

References
The Book of Indian Birds (Salim Ali)
Wikipedia
The Hindu article on Black drongo

Pictures:
Kerala, Bangalore 

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