Drongos | Dicruridae

Drongo's | Drongos

Glossy black, upright-perching birds with red eyes, a stout bill and, in many species, a deeply forked tail whose outer feathers curl outwards. About thirty species occur from the Old World tropics to Australia. They hunt from an exposed perch, sallying out to take flying insects and returning to the same spot, and they readily follow grazing game, livestock and bush fires to catch prey flushed into the open. Drongos are famously pugnacious, loudly chasing crows, hawks and even eagles many times their size, especially near the nest. The Fork-tailed Drongo is a remarkable mimic of other species' alarm calls. Around meerkats and babblers it gives false alarms and then steals the food they abandon as they flee, switching between different imitations so its victims keep falling for the trick. The nest is a shallow, open cup slung beneath a horizontal fork and fiercely defended.