Mimic King Drongo

Thank you so much for taking out time to read and appreciate “ODKF” trip report. Your appreciation always motivates me to find something unique every time.

So it’s much needed weekend to relax and re-gain the energy from work, traffic, and so many other issues. Be relax and take your car to venture out toward some nature connected place such as SGNP, Karnala, Chiplun, this will help you to get freshen up from daily stress. This is what I follow once a couple of months which always helps me to explore new avenues, out of such trips I get some incidence which I present to you every time, so for today I am presenting you unique experience I had with Drongo, a bird which looks similar to Crow but has no correlation with crow and possesses some unique characteristics. So let's get into the Dronog's world to explore the uniqueness of the bird.

The interesting incidence

Before we get into the detailing of the topic let me share one superb experience we had with this lovely bird. This is the outcome of our Nandur trip which was planned for Madhmeshwar bird sanctuary but on the way we to the sanctuary we got an opportunity to add to our memory book. Let me explain the same in the next section.

Once I was on a trip to Nandur for birding near Nasik with Saurabh and Vishnu, you all are familiar with two names; both are equally crazy rather I would say I learned craziness from them. While we were near our destination, we noticed an awesome combination of evening lights and green grass on farmland, we decided to take a break and try our to capture this combo on camera.

We started evaluating farmland which was truly mesmerizing because of low light like golden color spread on the grass, meanwhile, we were trying a photoshoot Saurabh pointed out an unusual activity. The activity was Drongo catching insects from fire. Let me explain why fire, it is a routine practice of farmers to burn out dry grass, due to fire insects flies down from once place to another which becomes an opportunity for Drongos to catch insects. The unusual or unique because it goes very near to fire without any fear catch insects in the air. The daring of the bird was a treat to watch because it is rare that you get such an excellent opportunity to capture such a unique scenario that is too in such a beautiful atmosphere. Check out DSLR section to connect the Drongo's daring for catching insects. This is not the only one but there are many more hence I have explained the same in the next section so let set go to the next section.

Dashing Drongo

The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 29 species in the family are placed in a single genus Dicrurus

The drongo fantail formerly named the pygmy drongo is not closely related and is now placed in the family Rhipiduridae

Drongos are typically colored black with a beautiful, greenish, or purplish iridescence. The wings of these elegant, jay-sized birds are relatively long and pointed, and the tail is deeply forked

The USP of the bird is that the bird is a best mimic artist hence I kept the title "Mimic King". Some species especially racket-tailed drongo are accomplished mimics and have a variety of alarm calls, to which other birds and animals often respond

There is evidence that they utter hoax alarm calls that typically scare other animals off food, which the drongo then eats, a matter of interest to researchers

Drongos sing melodiously to proclaim their territory, often imitating the songs of other species

Despite their small size they are fearless and will attack much larger species if their nest or young are threatened. They are aggressive in the defense of their territory against other drongos as well as potential predators

Some other small birds deliberately nest close to drongos because of the relative protection that is afforded against crows, hawks, and other predators

Drongos are excellent and maneuverable fliers, though not over long distances. They commonly feed by catching insects in flight, having discovered their prey from an exposed, aerial perch

Little bird with so many qualities, I hope you liked the content request you to help me with your feedback so as I can serve you better, don’t forget to checkout DSLR section