Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

The greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) is one of the most distinctive drongos, named for the two greatly elongated outer tail feathers that end in broad, racket-shaped tips. The body is about 31–36 cm long before the tail streamers are added, and the streamers can add roughly another 25–30 cm. Adults weigh around 70–125 g. The plumage is glossy black with a blue-green sheen, the eyes are reddish brown, and many populations have a conspicuous crest that curls forward over the bill.

Both sexes look similar. The species can be confused with the lesser racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus remifer), but the greater racket-tailed drongo is larger and more robust, with a heavier bill and usually a more obvious crest. The exact shape and length of the crest and tail streamers vary between subspecies.

The Sri Lanka drongo (Dicrurus lophorinus) was historically often treated as a form of the greater racket-tailed drongo but is now recognised as a separate species endemic to Sri Lanka. Older books and range descriptions may therefore use a broader concept of D. paradiseus than current sources.

The greater racket-tailed drongo is primarily a forest bird. It occurs in moist evergreen and deciduous forest, secondary woodland, mangroves, forest edges and wooded plantations, and it can also use more open areas where enough mature trees remain. In India it is especially associated with wooded landscapes.

It is resident across most of its range. Within suitable forest it often moves through the canopy and middle levels, frequently in the company of other bird species. Mixed-species flocks can be an important part of its daily ecology, providing both feeding opportunities and information about nearby predators.

The diet is dominated by insects and other arthropods. Drongos make short aerial sallies to catch flying prey and also pick insects from leaves, branches and trunks. Recorded prey includes ants, bees, beetles, dragonflies, locusts, mantids, moths and termites. The species can also take small vertebrates, including lizards, and drinks nectar.

One of the species' most remarkable traits is its vocal mimicry. Greater racket-tailed drongos copy the songs, contact calls and alarm calls of many other birds, but the imitation is not simply random. Studies from Sri Lankan forests published in 2006 found that drongos use different copied sounds in different situations, including alarm and mobbing contexts.

In a playback experiment published the same year, drongo vocalisations containing mimicry attracted birds from other species more than twice as strongly as drongo vocalisations without mimicry. A study published in 2005 also showed that the drongo acts as an important sentinel in mixed-species flocks: it is quick to detect danger, and other birds respond to its calls. Other flock members can also flush insects that the drongo captures, so the association provides both feeding opportunities and information about predators. The drongo therefore helps influence how these flocks form and move through the forest.

Outside the breeding season the species may be seen alone, in pairs or moving with mixed flocks.

Breeding timing varies across the range, broadly from February to July and commonly from March to June in much of South Asia. Pairs are territorial and bold around the nest. They build a shallow cup or saucer-shaped nest high in a tree, using fine roots, plant fibres and other material bound with spider silk and often camouflaged with lichen. Three or four eggs are typical, although one to four have been recorded.

Both parents take part in nest building, incubation and feeding the young. Incubation is around 15–17 days, and the young generally leave the nest after roughly 17–28 days but remain dependent on their parents for some time afterwards. A field study published in 2020 described a nesting pair repeatedly scraping and smoothing the bark of their nest tree. The researchers suggested that this might make the trunk harder for climbing predators to use, although it is not yet known whether the behaviour is widespread in the species.

The greater racket-tailed drongo is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List and remains widespread across South and Southeast Asia. Across much of India it is especially associated with forest, so local populations can be affected when woodland is cleared or fragmented.

In India the long-term population trend is uncertain, while the trend in recent years has been approximately stable.