A birding lesson from the field: Don’t pass up a drongo — or any black bird with a forked tail
Towards the end of our Parambikulam tramway trek, as I dragged my weary feet past a tree on which was perched a dark bird with a telltale fork at the end of of its tail, Beej stopped and whispered, “What is it?”
“Drongo,” I muttered dismissively, and walked on.
“Never rule out a bird unless you are sure,” Beej growled and started looking at it through his field glasses. I raised my camera and lens, which weighed a ton in my tired arms, and fired a couple of shots desultorily.
Realization sank in the same moment as Beej exclaimed, “Drongo-cuckoo!”
Nearly six months later in Dandeli, history repeated itself with a different set of characters. Arun walked past a black, fork-tailed bird on an open perch and I was quick to take note of it, thanks to the ticking off from Beej earlier. It turned out, as it were, to be a Drongo-Cuckoo.
And so, in order to ensure that no birder steps past a Drongo-Cuckoo again, here are some notes from the field:
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| Note that the black bird on the left shares a profile similar to the bird on the extreme right – each has an “unkempt” tuft of hair above its brow. Both are cuckoos. The bird in the centre, also with a forked tail, is a drongo. In this case, it’s a Black Drongo – the white rictal spot is diagnostic. |
1) Head: This bird’s head was of an odd shape – with a ruffled, unkempt tuft reminiscent of the Common Hawk Cuckoo or Brainfever Bird, to which it is related.
2) Bill: The beak is small and slender. All drongos have thick, strong bills that end in a slight downward curve. The Drongo-Cuckoo’s bill juts out of its head like a nail out of a pin-cushion, with the sharp side outwards.
3) Tail: The tail, on closer examination, shows barred markings on the outer feathers. This might be harder to spot when you view the bird against the light or in well-lit trees. And, anyway, this is the last thing that you will notice.
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| Two forked tails, and each tells a different story. The barring on the Drongo-Cuckoo’s tail sets it apart, while the Drongo has an unmarked fork, though the depth and definition of the fork can vary with the species |
And once you are identify a Drongo-Cuckoo correctly, you will never mistake it for a drongo again!
So, which one do you think this is?
Maybe a closer look would help?
Sandeep Somasekharan (or Sandy as friends call him) took his headlong plunge into photography with a three-megapixel Nikon point-and-shoot he purchased in 2003. The avid reader and an occasional scribbler started enjoying travel and nature more as he spent more time photographing. Meeting Beej in 2008 helped him channel his creative energies in the form of essays and nature photographs that he started publishing on the Green Ogre. Sandy loves to photograph birds and landscapes, and considers photography and writing as his meditation.
He is an engineer by education, IT professional by vocation, and a hopeless dreamer since creation.
He is an engineer by education, IT professional by vocation, and a hopeless dreamer since creation.
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