FORK-TAILED DRONGOS

      Twenty-eight species of drongo birds in one genus live in open woods and brushy areas in Africa, Asia and Australia.  Fork-tailed drongos commonly inhabit bushy parts of South Africa's Kalahari Desert.  Fork-tails are about eleven inches long and perch upright on tree limbs when they watch for flying insects to pursue, catch and consume.  Both genders of these birds also have forked tails, short legs, red irises and black feathering.  

     Drongos get most of their food by sweeping out from tree perches to snap up flying insects with their beaks and flying back to perches to eat them and watch for more insects.  Being adaptable, they also get food by fluttering over grass fires to snare escaping insects.  They follow large animals through tall grass to catch insects stirred up by those big creatures.  And they dive into shallow water to snare small fish.  

     The successful fork-tailed drongos are famous for their trickery to steal invertebrate food from other kinds of critters on the ground, especially when food is scarce.  These drongos utter their own alarm calls, which other kinds of small birds and mammals heed, whether predators are around or not, and run for cover in fright, leaving their food behind.  The drongos that sounded those alarms flutter to the ground and ingest those abandoned invertebrates themselves.  Obviously, that is quite an adaptation to get food when food is in short supply.  

     Fork-tailed drongos often are sentinels in trees and shrubbery above meerkats, which are small, foraging mammals that dig up invertebrates from the soil.  Drongos sound their own alarms when predators are near, causing meerkats to dash to their nearby burrows, leaving exposed invertebrates on the ground for the drongos to ingest.  Sometimes, however, drongos call out their alarms when no predators are around, just to make the meerkats run to safety, leaving their food behind, which the drongos consume.  But the meerkats, being intelligent, don't fall for that hoax for long.  Then the drongos call out the meerkats' own alarm calls, which those mammals can not ignore, and dart for shelter, again leaving food on the ground for the drongos to eat.  Drongos are full of tricks to get food. They are survivors.     

     Each pair of drongos raises two to four chicks in open, grass nurseries high in shrubs or trees.  Female Jacobin cuckoos lay an egg in each drongo nest they encounter, but those eggs are rejected 93 percent of the time, according to an official survey of drongo cradles.  And, drongos are aggressive in defense of their youngsters.  

     Drongos are real survivors, like many adaptable species of life on Earth are.  And I am impressed by their using trickery to get food when it is limited.  All life is miraculous, and amazing.    

           

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