Fork-tailed Drongo: how to recognise it
A bird of Africa. Learn the marks that make it easy to identify, then practise with real photographs in Lore.
Practise with real photosAll species guides
Photo © Rails and roadtrips · CC BY-NC · iNaturalist · all photo credits
- Scientific name
- Dicrurus adsimilis
- Family
- Drongos
- Size
- About 25 cm
- Habitat
- Savanna, woodland and farmland
- Found in
- Africa
The key marks
Glossy black bird with a red eye and a deeply forked tail whose tips flare outwards, perching upright in the open. Square-tailed Drongo looks similar but its tail is only shallowly notched, almost square, and it prefers forest.
Voice
Harsh, grating notes mixed with mimicked calls of other birds.
Good to know
It mimics the alarm calls of other animals to scare them off and then grabs their food.
Do not confuse with
Compare it with the Square-tailed Drongo. Look at the marks above one by one rather than the overall colour, and practise telling the two apart with real photos.
Where and when
You can expect to find it in savanna, woodland and farmland. It is especially common in South Africa. Distribution changes with the seasons and from year to year, so check a recent local observation source before you go looking.