With, fantastic endemic and migratory birds, the forest is a magical place.”, Swaroop Bharadwaj another well known birder says, “The  Racket – tailed Drongo is a forest bird species and can be seen in the forest of Bannerghatta national park and in the Western Ghats. I was once leading a trail in Sultanpur, on the outskirts in Gurgaon, where farmers were burning crop stubble. A researcher has recorded the bird mimicking 35 species of birds, 3 mammals, at least 2 frogs and even an insect! Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

These cookies do not store any personal information. Lion farming – Lord Ashcroft submission to South African High Level Panel, Human-lion conflict in a key lion population area. In short, the bird has a long and gracefully deep forked tail, a characteristic feature of most Drongos in India.

In areas outside Delhi-NCR where foxes and jackals exist, they’ll attack them too, with the same courage, earning themselves the name Kotwal (a police officer in Hindi). Its black plumage made a wonderful contrast to the dry and almost lifeless looking brown brush around. To enable wide dissemination of news that is in public interest, we have increased the number of articles that can be read free, and extended free trial periods. Their vocal mimicry also say birders, helps them in diverting the attention of smaller birds to aid their piracy. He started work on the drongo project in 2008.

Celebrate Africa and do good. Publisher We were walking through the Kabini Wind Flower Resort headed for breakfast, when a raucous single note whistle overhead, made us glance up to see the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus). Printable version | Oct 10, 2020 5:32:31 PM | https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/on-the-belligerent-black-drongo/article30700617.ece, Citizen project monitors movement of dragonfly Pantala flavescens from Africa and back. One hypothesis suggests is that these vocal imitations may help in forest bird communities, with mixed species of insect feeders forage together. So if I want to find drongo ‘Dave’, for example, I can walk into his territory, give a call and he’ll come flying over to me in return for a mealworm reward. They are diurnal feeders, but are active well before dawn and late at dusk.

It waits there to dash into aerial displays and manoeuvres to catch insects during the day as well as the night, under street lights. Dr Flower describes pied babblers as “the bird equivalent of meerkats, with mum and dad doing all the breeding while their offspring stay at home to help raise their younger siblings”. This chase is accompanied by a series of angry chattering calls that attract the attention of the least observant species — humans! Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. It eats termites, bees, butterflies, dragonflies and ants, making it primarily an insectivore, but they have been known to explore the possibility of preying on smaller birds, reptiles and even bats, making it quite the opportunist. As a subscriber, you are not only a beneficiary of our work but also its enabler. Gender and Social Inclusion Advisor/Asesor(a) en Igualdad de Género e Inclusión Social (GESI), ABA-ROLI-Senior Program Officer - Colombia/Oficial Senior de Programas en Colombia, Request for Quotes: Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) Computer and Related Equipment, Procurement of Search & Rescue Equipment, First Aid Items and Storage Containers, Senior advisor Safety & Security – DanChurchAid (Roving position). Though the species prefers open areas such as farmlands, grasslands, forest edges, wetlands and fields, it is now a common sight with its familiar dark-ghost like silhouette, perched on electrical and phone wires around our homes. Their cup nest is built in the fork of a tree and the usual clutch is around three to four eggs. Their aggressive behaviour often sees them land on larger birds of prey, like falcons and eagles, and peck at them repeatedly to drive them away.

Few people realise that perhaps the world’s most important field research project studying the evolution of cooperative societies is located in South Africa.”, Other species in the area are also habituated to people watching them at distances of less than five metres, including the drongos and another important species from which they steal food, a bird called the pied babbler. A Black Drongo perched on a board bearing its name The sightings of a pair of these birds in the Valley School area for some time now has been a delight to bird-watchers.”, Mariane Furtado de Nazareth is the former Assistant Editor, The Deccan Herald, and adjunct faculty, St. Joseph’s PG College of Media Studies in Bangalore. Back in 1928, an English police officer and ornithologist in India named Hugh Whistler, called it the King Crow, not because it was related to crows, but because it surpassed the menacing behaviour of the Corvidae (Crow) family. Their single note whistle has lead to its being called kothwal ,which means a “policeman” or “guard.”, Deepa Mohan an avid bird watcher who generously takes groups of birders out bird watching, over the weekend says,”  The Greater Racket-tailed Drongo is  found in Peninsular India and the Western Ghats, and it is not a common bird to be sighted in the environs of Bangalore. And wouldn’t that be a pity? Dr Flower said, “That means that I and other researchers can get right into the thick of the action.