Drongo
The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 31 species in the family are placed in a single genus, Dicrurus.
| Drongo | |
|---|---|
| Hair-crested drongo (D. hottentottus striatus) | |
| Scientific 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 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cladogram based on a study by Eric Pasquet and colleagues published in 2007. |
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.