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Drongo

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For the band, see The Drongos.

The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 28 species in the family are placed in a single genus, Dicrurus.

Drongo
Hair-crested drongo (D. hottentottus striatus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Superfamily: Corvoidea
Family: Dicruridae
Vigors, 1825
Genus: Dicrurus
Vieillot, 1816
Type species
Corvus balicassius (Balicassiao)
Linnaeus, 1766
Dicrurus phylogeny
Dicruridae

aeneus

 
 
 

paradiseus

annectens

 
 

megarhynchus

bracteatus

 

hottentotus

balicassius

remifer

 
 
 

waldenii

 

aldabranus

forficatus

 
 
 

adsimilis

macrocercus

modestus

 

fuscipennis

 

leucophaeus

 

atripennis

ludwigii

Cladogram based on a study by Eric Pasquet and colleagues published in 2007.[1]

Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when perched. They have forked tails and some have elaborate tail decorations. They feed on insects and small birds, which they catch in flight or on the ground. Some species are accomplished mimics and have a variety of alarm calls, to which other birds and animals often respond. They are known to utter fake alarm calls that scare other animals off food, which the drongo then claims.

Taxonomy

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The genus Dicrurus was introduced by French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot for the drongos in 1816.[2] The type species was subsequently designated as the balicassiao (Dicrurus balicassius) by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1841.[3][4] The name of the genus combines the Ancient Greek words dikros "forked" and oura "tail".[5] "Drongo" is originally from the indigenous language of Madagascar, where it refers to the crested drongo; it is now used for all members of the family.[6]

This family now includes only the genus Dicrurus, although Christidis and Boles (2007) expanded the family to include the subfamilies Rhipidurinae (Australasian fantails), Monarchinae (monarch and paradise flycatchers), and Grallininae (magpie larks).[7]

The family was formerly treated as having two genera, Chaetorhynchus and Dicrurus. The genus Chaetorhynchus contains a single species, the New Guinea-endemic C. papuensis. On the basis of both morphological and genetic differences, it is now placed with the fantails (Rhipiduridae) and renamed from the pygmy drongo to the drongo fantail.[8]

The genus Dicrurus contains 28 species:[9]

Image Common Name Scientific name Distribution
  Square-tailed drongo Dicrurus ludwigii southern Africa.
  Sharpe's drongo Dicrurus sharpei southern South Sudan and western Kenya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Nigeria
  Shining drongo Dicrurus atripennis Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
  Fork-tailed drongo Dicrurus adsimilis Gabon, Congo Republic, DRC, Angola, northwestern Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and northwestern South Africa
  Velvet-mantled drongo Dicrurus modestus Nigeria and Cameroon to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.
Grande Comore drongo Dicrurus fuscipennis Comoros.
  Aldabra drongo Dicrurus aldabranus Seychelles
  Crested drongo Dicrurus forficatus Madagascar and Comoros
Mayotte drongo Dicrurus waldenii Mayotte.
  Black drongo Dicrurus macrocercus Iran through Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to southern China and Indonesia and accidental visitor of Japan
  Ashy drongo Dicrurus leucophaeus eastern Afghanistan east to southern China, Ryukyu Islands in southern Japan (particularly Okinawa) and Indonesia.
  White-bellied drongo Dicrurus caerulescens India and Sri Lanka.
  Crow-billed drongo Dicrurus annectens Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  Bronzed drongo Dicrurus aeneus western Uttaranchal eastwards into Indochina and Hainan, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and northern Borneo
  Lesser racket-tailed drongo Dicrurus remifer Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  Balicassiao Dicrurus balicassius Philippines.
Short-tailed drongo Dicrurus striatus Philippines.
  Hair-crested drongo Dicrurus hottentottus Bangladesh, India, and Bhutan through Indochina to China, Indonesia, and Brunei.
Tablas drongo Dicrurus menagei Philippines.
Palawan drongo Dicrurus palawanensis Palawan.
Sumatran drongo Dicrurus sumatranus Sumatra in Indonesia.
  Wallacean drongo Dicrurus densus Indonesia and East Timor.
  Sulawesi drongo Dicrurus montanus Sulawesi in Indonesia.
  Spangled drongo Dicrurus bracteatus Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia
Paradise drongo Dicrurus megarhynchus New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea.
  Andaman drongo Dicrurus andamanensis Andaman Islands
  Greater racket-tailed drongo Dicrurus paradiseus India to Borneo and Java
  Sri Lanka drongo Dicrurus lophorinus Sri Lanka.

The family Dicruridae is most likely of Indo-Malayan origin, with a colonization of Africa about 15 million years ago (Mya). Dispersal across the Wallace Line into Australasia is estimated to have been more recent, around 6 Mya.[1]

Characteristics

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Bronzed drongo (Dicrurus aeneus) in India

These insectivorous birds are usually found in open forests or bush. Most are black or dark grey in colour, sometimes with metallic tints. They have long, forked tails; some Asian species have elaborate tail decorations. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched, like a shrike. They flycatch or take prey from the ground. Some drongos, especially the greater racket-tailed drongo, are noted for their ability to mimic other birds and even mammals.

Two to four eggs are laid in a nest high in a tree. Despite their small size, they are aggressive and fearless, and will attack much larger species if their nests or young are threatened.

Several species of animals and birds respond to drongos' alarm calls, which often warn of the presence of a predator. Fork-tailed drongos in the Kalahari Desert use alarm calls in the absence of a predator to cause animals to flee and abandon food, which they eat, getting up to 23% of their food this way. They not only use their own alarm calls, but also imitate those of many species, either their victim's or that of another species to which the victim responds. If the call of one species is not effective, perhaps because of habituation, the drongo may try another; 51 different calls are known to be imitated. In one test on pied babblers, the babbler ignored an alarm call repeated three times when no danger was present, but continued to respond to different calls. Researchers have considered the possibility that these drongos possess theory of mind, not fully shown in any animal other than humans.[10][11][12]

Insult

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The word "drongo" is used in Australian English as a mild form of insult meaning "idiot" or "stupid fellow". This usage derives from an Australian racehorse of the same name (apparently after the spangled drongo, D. bracteatus) in the 1920s that never won despite many places. The word also has been frequently used among friends and can be used in a casual or serious tone.[13][14][15][16]

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References

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  1. ^ a b Pasquet, Eric; Pons, Jean-Marc; Fuchs, Jerome; Cruaud, Corinne; Bretagnolle, Vincent (2007). "Evolutionary history and biogeography of the drongos (Dicruridae), a tropical Old World clade of corvoid passerines". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 45 (1): 158–167. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.03.010. PMID 17468015.
  2. ^ Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'Une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 41.
  3. ^ Gray (1841). A List of the Genera of Birds : with their Synonyma and an Indication of the Typical Species of Each Genus (2nd ed.). London: R. and J.E. Taylor. p. 47.
  4. ^ Mayr, Ernst; Greenway, James C. Jr, eds. (1962). Check-list of birds of the world. Vol. 15. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 138.
  5. ^ Jobling, J.A. (2018). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  6. ^ Lindsey, Terence (1991). Forshaw, Joseph (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. pp. 223–224. ISBN 1-85391-186-0.
  7. ^ Christidis, Les; Walter Boles (2008) Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Csiro Publishing, Australia. p. 174
  8. ^ Irested, Martin; Fuchs, J; Jønsson, KA; Ohlson, JI; Pasquet, E; Ericson, Per G.P. (2009). "The systematic affinity of the enigmatic Lamprolia victoriae (Aves: Passeriformes)—An example of avian dispersal between New Guinea and Fiji over Miocene intermittent land bridges?" (PDF). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 48 (3): 1218–1222. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.05.038. PMID 18620871.
  9. ^ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2018). "Orioles, drongos, fantails". World Bird List Version 8.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  10. ^ Flower, T.P. (2014). "Deception by flexible alarm mimicry in an African bird". Science. 344 (6183): 513–516. Bibcode:2014Sci...344..513F. doi:10.1126/science.1249723. PMID 24786078.
  11. ^ National Geographic: African Bird Shouts False Alarms to Deceive and Steal, Study Shows Drongos in the Kalahari are masters of deception, 1 May 2014
  12. ^ Flower, T. (2010). "Fork-tailed drongos use deceptive mimicked alarm calls to steal food". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 278 (1711): 1548–1555. doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1932. PMC 3081750. PMID 21047861.
  13. ^ Green, Jonathon (2005). Cassell's Dictionary of Slang. London, UK: Orion Publishing Group. p. 450. ISBN 978-0-304-36636-1.
  14. ^ Wannan, Bill (1979) [1970]. "Drongo". Australian Folklore. Lansdowne Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-7018-1309-1.
  15. ^ "Drongo". Oxford Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  16. ^ "Career of Drongo". The News (Adelaide). Vol. IV, no. 568. South Australia. 20 May 1925. p. 3. Retrieved 14 February 2018 – via National Library of Australia.

Further reading

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