It was well before Christmas last year that a pair of Fork-tailed Drongos decided that we were a ticket to tasty treats. I no longer recall how it happened, but I tossed a small square of cheese into the air for each of them and was completely charmed by how adept they were at catching their treat. Their treat: only once a day, I determined. They had other plans … they worked out that the two humans could be played one off the other so that they received more than a single treat! This Drongo is recognisable by its ragged tail – in all of these pictures the drongos are perched on a (now defunct) telephone cable in our back garden.
As soon as they hear me in the kitchen first thing in the morning, their characteristic calls begin. If I am slow in opening the kitchen door, I might find one of them perched on the security gate as if to say what has taken you so long? Now that I have moved the feeders to the front garden, the two of them perch on a branch above where I am sitting: what snacks have you brought for us today? There are so many insects around at the moment that I tend not to give them cheese anymore. They are adept at hawking insects in the air and I often watch them hover just above the ground before swooping down onto a caterpillar or beetle in the grass. Still, they hang about and eat their prey so close to me that I can usually identify what they have caught. The other Drongo has smooth tail feathers.
Most sources describe these black birds as being red-eyed. Red is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose for I see the colour of their eyes being a warm brown. Perhaps it depends on the light … I concede there might be a shade of red in there.
As I have had ample opportunity to observe Fork-tailed Drongos, I have come to appreciate how well they can imitate the calls of other birds – and even the sounds of some insects! The drongos are the first to give the alarm call that a cat is nearby. This shrill, insistent sound sends all the birds up to the higher branches, well out of the way.
They are feisty birds that ‘take control’ if the feeding tray from time to time, chasing away weavers, Olive Thrushes and even the much larger Black-headed Orioles. The other birds wait patiently in the branches until the drongos fly off to catch something else to eat before they dive in to eat what they can in a rush before the drongos return! Mind you, should a bird (usually a weaver) manage to extract a large chunk of something from the tray, one or other Drongo will fly after it and try to take it away.
Something Over Tea 