- Asian Drongo-Cuckoo
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Asian Drongo-Cuckoo 
Juvenile S. dicruroides Conservation status Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Cuculiformes Family: Cuculidae Genus: Surniculus Species: S. lugubris Binomial name Surniculus lugubris
(Horsfield, 1821)The Asian Drongo-Cuckoo Surniculus lugubris is a species of cuckoo that resembles a Black Drongo. It can be easily distinguished by its straight beak and the white barred vent. It is a brood parasite on small babblers. It is not known how or whether the drongo-like appearance benefits this species but it is suspected that it aids in brood-parasitism just as hawk-cuckoos appear like hawks.[2]
It shares the genus Surniculus with the Philippine Drongo-Cuckoo Surniculus velutinus which is sometimes treated as a subspecies of S. lugubris, but can be separated as a species on the basis of vocalization and juvenile plumage.
Some recent work suggests that the species may need to be split into two based on call and morphological differences:[3][4]
- Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris including brachyurus, musschenbroeki. This has white bars on vent and outer undertail, tail only notched with slightly flared tips. In flight a white wing-stripe is visible from below. This is found in South East Asia and is a summer visitor to the Himalayas from Kashmir to eastern Bangladesh. The calls are series of piercing sharp whistles rising in pitch but shrill and choppily delivered.[3]
- Fork-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo (Surniculus dicruroides) - has a deeply forked tail often having a white spot on the back of the head. The race is Sri Lanka stewarti has a shallower fork. Found resident mainly in peninsular India in hill forests although some specimens are known from the Himalayan foothills. They are said to brood parasitic on Dark-fronted Babblers. The song has been described as a series of 5 or 6 whistling "pip-pip-pip-pip-pip-" notes rising in pitch with each "pip".[3]
References
- ^ BirdLife International (2009). Surniculus lugubris. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 20 September 2011.
- ^ Davies NB & Welbergen JA (2008). "Cuckoo-hawk mimicry? An experimental test" (PDF). Proc. Biol. Sci. 275 (1644): 1817–1822. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0331. PMC 2587796. PMID 18467298. http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/bbe/Welbergen/Papers/Davies%20%26%20Welbergen%202008.pdf.
- ^ a b c Rasmussen, P. C. & Anderton, J. C. 2005 Birds of South Asia. The Ripley Guide. Smithsonian and Lynx Edicions
- ^ Fu-Min, Lei & Robert B. Payne (2002) Territorial songs of the drongo cuckoo complex (Surniculus lugubris & S. velutinus). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 50(1):205-213 PDF
External links
Categories:- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Surniculus
- Birds of Bangladesh
- Birds of Bhutan
- Birds of India
- Birds of Japan
- Birds of Nepal
- Birds of Pakistan
- Birds of Thailand
- Cuculiformes stubs
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