Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Description
The Greater racket-tailed drongo can weighs 70 to 125 grams while the average is 100 grams, the Greater racket-tailed drongo measures 31 to 36 centimetres in length and the average length is 33 centimetres without counting the elongated tail feathers at all.

The colors of the main topographical elements are...

Beak: Black, might shine.

Head: Black with a crest of curled feathers which may look green, Dicrurus paradiseus otiosus has a extremely small crest while the Dicrurus paradiseus nicobariensis has a longer crest. Immature Greater racket-tailed drongos or juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos lack the crest.

Iris: Reddish-brown.

Pupil: Reddish-brown.

Mantle: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Lesser coverts: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Scapulars: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Coverts: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Tertials: Black. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Rump: Black. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Primaries: Black, pale yellow tips maybe seen. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Vent: Black. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Thigh: Black.

Tibio-tarsal articulation: Black.

Tarsus: Black.

Feet: Black.

Tibia: Black.

Belly: Black. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Flanks: Black. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Breast: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

Throat: Black, might shine blueish. Juvenile Greater racket-tailed drongos or immature Greater racket-tailed drongos are dull.

The tail with the twirled rackets of the Greater racket-tailed drongo can vary from subspecies.

When a Greater racket-tailed drongo is moulting, the elongated tail streamers can not be seen.

The twirled rackets of the Greater racket-tailed drongo is formed by a inner web of the vane.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo has elongated outer tail feathers with restricted webbing on the tips.

They belong to the Kingdom Animalia, the Phylum is Chordata, the Class is Aves, the Order is Passeriformes, the Family is Dicruridae, the Genus is Dicrurus,the Binomial name is Dicrurus paradiseus.

Subspecies
Dicrurus paradiseus grandis: It is found in North India and especially the Himalayas and the Mishmi hills at foothills below 1,200 metres, it is the largest subspecie which also has long glossy neck hackles.

Dicrurus paradiseus rangoonensis: Central India.

Dicrurus paradiseus paradiseus: It is the Nominate form found in South India which lives in forest of the Western Ghats and hill forests of peninsular India.

Dicrurus paradiseus otiosus: It is found in the Andaman Islands, this subspecie has short neck hackles and a extremely small crest.

Dicrurus paradiseus nicobariensis: Nicobar Islands, this subspecie has a long frontal crest and small neck hackles.

Adaptations
The Greater racket-tailed drongo has short legs making them perch upright on high and exposed branches.

Sounds - The Greater racket-tailed drongo has monotonously repeated whistles, metallic tunk-tunk-tunk series at 4 A.M., bell-like notes, warbles, nasal sounds, complex notes

Mimicry
Alarm calls learnt in mixed-species flocks, special alarm note around Shikras which is kwei-kwei-kwei shee-cuckoo-sheecuckoo-sheecuckoo-why!, raptor calls to steal food from birds, calls of Babblers and particularly Jungle babbler which it imitates by fluffing up and moving like it while making the calls.

Diet - The diet includes ants, bees, beetles, dragonflies, locusts, mantids, moths, termites in the mid-air and fruits and nectar.

Habitat - Moist deciduous forests, low hills of the Himalayas and wide-open plains.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo can be found at elevations of 2,000 metres above the sea and on a average they are found at 1,500 metres above the sea.

Behaviour
The Greater racket-tailed drongo is very active during the dusk.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo is very territorial, the Greater racket-tailed drongo mobs large birds especially in the nesting period.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo lives in pairs and small groups.

Flight
Dipping with short spurts of flapping with gliding.

The rackets of the Greater racket-tailed drongo make a persistent humming noise in flight.

Breeding & Nesting - The breeding season for the Greater racket-tailed drongo is April to August, June to July is the breeding season in North India, in South India it might be February.

The courtship display of the Greater racket-tailed drongo is hops and turns on branches, dropping something and picking in the mid air.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo makes a cup nest made of intricately intertwined roots and leaves with fine lining inside which is held together with cobwebs and lichens in a horizontal fork of a smooth-boled tree with an isolated canopy, bark maybe broken by the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

Three to four creamy white eggs with blotches of reddish brown getting dense at the broad end are laid by the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo, the average is three eggs.

The eggs of the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo hatch in 15 to 17 days and the hatchlings fledge in 17 to 28 days with a average of 19 days.

The fledglings become independent in four to six weeks.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo is monogamous.

The previous brood of the Greater racket-tailed drongo raise subsequent broods.

Nesting duties, constructing the nest, incubation, and rearing young are shared between males and females. Males and females also continue to watch over their young even after they leave the nest.

Duties
Incubation is shared by both the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

Altricial or pre-fertilization: Provisioning and protecting by the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

Pre-hatching or birth: Provisioning and protecting is done by the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo while protecting is done both by the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

pre-weaning or fledging: Provisioning iand protecting is done by both the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

pre-independence: Provisioning iand protecting is done by both the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

post-independence: Protecting is done both the adult male Greater racket-tailed drongo and the adult female Greater racket-tailed drongo.

Relations
Kleptoparasite for mixed-species flocks, mutualistic and commensal relation with laughingthrushes, foraging woodpeckers and troop of macaques.

Culture
The monotonously repeated whistles has earned it's name Kothwal in India.

The Greater racket-tailed drongo is called Vakul in Mizo, it's feathers are used by the Mizo speaking people.

Threats, Predators & Conservation Status - Decreasing in number but listed as Least Concern status in the IUCN Red List.