Black Drongo, originally uploaded by Shabu Anower.

The Black Drongo Dicrurus macrocercus, is a small Asian drongo. The Black Drongo is a common resident breeder in much of tropical southern Asia from southwest Iran through India and Sri Lanka east to southern China and Indonesia.

This species was earlier lumped with the African species which is now referred to as Dicrurus adsimilis. This bird is glossy black with a wide fork to the tail. Adults have a small white spot at the base of the gape. The iris is dark brown (not crimson as in the closely resembling Ashy Drongo). Juveniles are brownish and may have some white barring or speckling towards the belly and vent and can be mistaken for the White-bellied Drongo. The race albirictus of northern India is large and the Sri Lankan race minor is small with the nominate race of peninsular India intermediate in size. Race cathoecus is found in Thailand Hong Kong and China.

They are aggressive and fearless birds, 28 cm in length, and will attack much larger species if their nest or young are threatened. This behaviour led to the former name of King Crow. They fly with strong flaps of the wing and are capable of fast manoeuvres to capture insect prey. The Black Drongo has short legs and sits very upright on perches or electricity wires. They may also perch on grazing animals.

The birds being common have a wide range of local names. The older genus name of Buchanga was from the Hindi name of Bhujanga. Other local names include Thampal in Pakistan, Gohalo/Kolaho in Baluchistan, Kalkalachi in Sindhi, Kotwal (=policeman) in Hindi; Bengali: Finga; Assamese: Phenchu; Manipuri: Cheiroi; Gujarati: Kosita, Kalo koshi; Marathi: Ghosia; Oriya: Kajalapati; Tamil: Kari kuruvi (=charcoal bird), Erettai valan (=two tail); Telugu: Passala poli gadu; Malayalam: Kaaka tampuratti (queen of crows); Kannada: Kari bhujanga and Sinhalese: Kauda.

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