A Fork-tailed Drongo with its distinctive red eye, pauses in it's mid morning fly catching activity.
Photographed in Botswana, Africa from a safari vehicle
Please click on the image to view at the largest size
Thanks for your visits and comments!
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From Wikipedia: The fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis), also called the common drongo or African drongo, is a small bird found from the Sahel to South Africa, excepting dense forest, that lives in wooded habitats, particularly woodlands and savannas.
Physically this species is characterized with a narrow fork-shaped tail, red-brownish eyes, and black plumage throughout all of his body. As an omnivorous species, its diet consists of small insects, composing of butterflies, grasshoppers and beetles, besides fruit, including those of Azadirachta indica and Moringa oleifera.
The fork-tailed drongo is known for his ability to deceptively mimic other bird alarm calls in order for a certain animal to flee the scene so he can steal their food (kleptoparasitism). They are also notorious for displaying an aggressive and fearless behaviour by attacking and chasing off much larges animals, including birds of prey.
Behavior:
They are usually solitary and form monogamous breeding pairs. They are aggressive and fearless, regularly mobbing or attacking much larger species, including birds of prey, if their nest or young are threatened or their territory is compromised. They also join mixed foraging bird parties, and will initiate mobbing of common enemies. To maintain their plumage condition they may rain-bathe, foliage-bathe or plunge-dive into water. Terrestrial foragers like babblers may use the drongo as a sentry.
Feeding:
This specie is mostly insectivorous and occasionally eats fishes and other birds, furthermore they may take nectar and eat plants when available too. Predominant preyed animals are butterflies, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, honey bees, moths, termites and weevils, especially common species |being the angola white lady, macrotermes natalensis, cyrtacanthacris aeruginosa, and the desert locust. Sometimes they might also eat small fishes by swooping down from a perch hovering over water and dipping, it has been observed small birds being captured with their claws or bills, namely the bronze mannikin. Plants take around 15% of their diet, usually eaten are the moringa oleifera, azadirachta indica and the dialium guineense. This bird is solidarity in its hunting.
Usually, the fork-tailed drongo perches, from a height of 5 m (16 ft 5 in) to 7 m (22 ft 11+1⁄2 in), in an erect pose from which they rapidly charge insects flycatching, plunge diving or grabbing it on the ground and then return to the same branch. They utilize disturbance caused by other animals in their hunting. The specie can hold large items with their claws and tear them with their bills; removes wings of butterflies. In the Kalahari the fork-tailed is famous for their kleptoparasitism, they mimic other birds or use their own alarms to make other animals think that there're predators nearby and thus make them flee and leave their food behind so the fork-tailed can steal it. They frequent savanna fires, where they catch fleeing insects and other prey running from the flames.
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A Fork-tailed Drongo with its distinctive red eye, pauses in it's mid morning fly catching activity.
Photographed in Botswana, Africa from a safari vehicle
Please click on the image to view at the largest size
Thanks for your visits and comments!
======================
From Wikipedia: The fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis), also called the common drongo or African drongo, is a small bird found from the Sahel to South Africa, excepting dense forest, that lives in wooded habitats, particularly woodlands and savannas.
Physically this species is characterized with a narrow fork-shaped tail, red-brownish eyes, and black plumage throughout all of his body. As an omnivorous species, its diet consists of small insects, composing of butterflies, grasshoppers and beetles, besides fruit, including those of Azadirachta indica and Moringa oleifera.
The fork-tailed drongo is known for his ability to deceptively mimic other bird alarm calls in order for a certain animal to flee the scene so he can steal their food (kleptoparasitism). They are also notorious for displaying an aggressive and fearless behaviour by attacking and chasing off much larges animals, including birds of prey.
Behavior:
They are usually solitary and form monogamous breeding pairs. They are aggressive and fearless, regularly mobbing or attacking much larger species, including birds of prey, if their nest or young are threatened or their territory is compromised. They also join mixed foraging bird parties, and will initiate mobbing of common enemies. To maintain their plumage condition they may rain-bathe, foliage-bathe or plunge-dive into water. Terrestrial foragers like babblers may use the drongo as a sentry.
Feeding:
This specie is mostly insectivorous and occasionally eats fishes and other birds, furthermore they may take nectar and eat plants when available too. Predominant preyed animals are butterflies, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, honey bees, moths, termites and weevils, especially common species |being the angola white lady, macrotermes natalensis, cyrtacanthacris aeruginosa, and the desert locust. Sometimes they might also eat small fishes by swooping down from a perch hovering over water and dipping, it has been observed small birds being captured with their claws or bills, namely the bronze mannikin. Plants take around 15% of their diet, usually eaten are the moringa oleifera, azadirachta indica and the dialium guineense. This bird is solidarity in its hunting.
Usually, the fork-tailed drongo perches, from a height of 5 m (16 ft 5 in) to 7 m (22 ft 11+1⁄2 in), in an erect pose from which they rapidly charge insects flycatching, plunge diving or grabbing it on the ground and then return to the same branch. They utilize disturbance caused by other animals in their hunting. The specie can hold large items with their claws and tear them with their bills; removes wings of butterflies. In the Kalahari the fork-tailed is famous for their kleptoparasitism, they mimic other birds or use their own alarms to make other animals think that there're predators nearby and thus make them flee and leave their food behind so the fork-tailed can steal it. They frequent savanna fires, where they catch fleeing insects and other prey running from the flames.
Afr-0I7A5533fFlkrDs