Thattekad Birding Rocks with Gireesh Thattekad Greater Racket tailed Drongo Place: Thattekad, Kerala, India. Date: 20th Nov. 2014 is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips.They are placed along with other drongo family. They are conspicuous in the forest habitats often perching in the open and by attracting attention with a wide range of loud calls that include perfect imitations of many other birds. It has been suggested that these imitations may help in the formation of mixed-species foraging flocks, a feature seen in forest bird communities where many insect feeders forage together. These drongos will sometimes steal insect prey caught or disturbed by other foragers in the flock. They are active well before dawn and late at dusk and hence not usually seen during the later part of the day. Owing to their widespread distribution and distinctive regional variation, they have become iconic examples of speciation by isolation and genetic drift. Their common whistle notes that is made leads to its local name in many parts of India of kothwal (which means a policeman or guard, who used a whistle that produced a similar note), a name also applied to the black drongo and in other places as the Bhimraj or Bhringaraj. This Image was shot when we were returning from our Day1 tour of morning Jungle trek , seeing sudden movement inside the tall trees with a little ray of light just falling enough on the bird for a quick shot. Best Viewed on Large Screen. Image Copyright by ThirdEye Reflections. Nature and WildLife Photography. By. Shekhar Bopardikar.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 07:51:33 +0000