Ribbon-tailed Drongo

Dicrurus megarhynchus

A large, unmistakable, entirely black drongo with an extremely long, bulbous-ended wavy tail. Prefers primary forest from lowlands up to 1800 meters of elevation. Voice is an endless reel of varied fluty, rasping, scolding, twanging notes.

Taxonomy

The paradise drongo was described by the French zoologists Jean Quoy and Joseph Gaimard in 1832 from a specimen that they believed had been collected in Dorey (now Manokwari) in New Guinea. They coined the binomial name, Edolius megarhynchus. The English zoologist Philip Sclater pointed out in 1877 that the location reported by Quoy and Gaimard was probably an error. Specimens had been collected from New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago but none had been obtained from New Guinea. The type locality is now designated as Port Praslin near the southern point of New Ireland.

Scientific name
Dicrurus megarhynchus
Authority
(Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Dicruridae
Genus
Dicrurus

Range and habitat

Migration
Resident species

Conservation

Population trend
declining

Photos

Distribution

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