by Usman Hanif
On 21st March 2015, we started UM Big Year officially and right during our first birdwatching session, I got to see my favorite birding-nemesis: the drongo. It is a medium-sized bird with a fork tail and many alter-egos—usually seen by people as a koel, heard as a raptor and confronted as a real trouble. The kind we have here has a fancy tail and is called racket-tailed drongo.
Many people have parrots as pets. Parrots are good mimickers, yet unlike Lyre-birds, parrots cannot mimic any other sounds in the wild. And the fun is taken out of their mimicking when it is totally based on the ‘treat’ system employed by their human owners. It seems slightly rude of us to make a bird speak certain words for some handfuls of peanuts as a treat. That’s why, the day they free themselves of their owners they never think about mimicking anything.
Drongos are not like that. A drongo has a talent for adapting to its surroundings, learning to speak out for the betterment of its own kind. They mimic a variety of birds of prey to scare away the crows and they could give warning signals to smaller birds when there is a danger. What I love about drongos is that when it comes to danger, they do not care what bird they are confronting, they just attack them, mob them and scare them away. Drongos don’t care if it’s a serpent eagle or a crow trying to mess with their nest, they will just attack them and scare the living daylight out of their eyes.
They also use their valiance for the protection of smaller birds. Drongos act as sentries, watching out for any predators while the smaller birds are foraging. Researchers have observed drongos associating with woodpeckers, white-eyes and mynas. Sights of other birds feeding the nestlings of drongos have also been reported by researchers.*
If you are unfortunate enough to be a bird photographer, the drongos will mess with all your photographs of other birds. They will not only slip away from your lens but also act as a decoy, giving warnings, mimicking raptors to give you a complete package of confusion and frustration.
So the next time when you are out birding, never believe your ears while you are in Rimba Ilmu. It is probable that while you are happily birding, a Racket-tailed Drongo may hop in behind you, say a few nice words in serpant eagle lexicon, look at you with evil red eyes and silently mock your identifying skills and slide back into the shadows waiting for new prey.
*For more readings: http://orientalbirdclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Styring-Drongo.pdf
Many people have parrots as pets. Parrots are good mimickers, yet unlike Lyre-birds, parrots cannot mimic any other sounds in the wild. And the fun is taken out of their mimicking when it is totally based on the ‘treat’ system employed by their human owners. It seems slightly rude of us to make a bird speak certain words for some handfuls of peanuts as a treat. That’s why, the day they free themselves of their owners they never think about mimicking anything.
Drongos are not like that. A drongo has a talent for adapting to its surroundings, learning to speak out for the betterment of its own kind. They mimic a variety of birds of prey to scare away the crows and they could give warning signals to smaller birds when there is a danger. What I love about drongos is that when it comes to danger, they do not care what bird they are confronting, they just attack them, mob them and scare them away. Drongos don’t care if it’s a serpent eagle or a crow trying to mess with their nest, they will just attack them and scare the living daylight out of their eyes.
They also use their valiance for the protection of smaller birds. Drongos act as sentries, watching out for any predators while the smaller birds are foraging. Researchers have observed drongos associating with woodpeckers, white-eyes and mynas. Sights of other birds feeding the nestlings of drongos have also been reported by researchers.*
If you are unfortunate enough to be a bird photographer, the drongos will mess with all your photographs of other birds. They will not only slip away from your lens but also act as a decoy, giving warnings, mimicking raptors to give you a complete package of confusion and frustration.
So the next time when you are out birding, never believe your ears while you are in Rimba Ilmu. It is probable that while you are happily birding, a Racket-tailed Drongo may hop in behind you, say a few nice words in serpant eagle lexicon, look at you with evil red eyes and silently mock your identifying skills and slide back into the shadows waiting for new prey.
*For more readings: http://orientalbirdclub.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Styring-Drongo.pdf