Rowdy Birds!

It was back in my 4th grade. I was walking back from school. Suddenly a flock of different birds passed over my head shouting loudly. There were 2-3 woodpeckers, bee-eaters, and 4 other types of birds. I wondered, how birds of different species can become a flock… They weren’t fighting at all. Instead, they were flying and resting on trees for some seconds and flying again. After I reached home, I asked my father about it. He said it was called mixed hunting. A (rowdy) bird called Drongo chased all these birds and created a group of various birds and hunted with them! For the 9-year-old me, Drongo was a dominating bird who is rude to other birds…

But now, these drongos are my favorite. Especially racket-tailed drongo – which has long tail streamers and ivory black feathers. After learning about group hunting, I read several books and articles about drongos which made me see them as villains of the bird society. These birds are extremely clever. They can mimic other birds’ calls and as well as monkeys. In Africa, a type of drongo mimics lemur’s calls and steals their food! Also, whenever I saw these birds, they were always attacking other birds, or fooling others, or chasing the other birds. That’s why I called them Rowdy birds!

The drongos range from Africa to Central Asia, Australia, pacific Islands etc. The racket tailed drongos comes under the Dicruridae family – a huge family of drongos!

I think Drongos are like Snape from Harry Potter.(if you don’t know, snape is a charecter who we cannot decide whether he is good or bad) They seems like evil and bully, but what they do is very useful. So, I re-named these again in my 6th grade as… Snape!

So why they are like Snape: In the starting, I talked about mixed hunting. According to hypotheses, the birds mix hunt to gain access to more food. Instead of fighting for food, some birds who have a similar diet hunt with each other, also, scientists say that these birds do mix hunting to protect themselves from predators and also to drive insects to form the hidings. Also, If a drongo builds its nest on trees, some other birds will live in the same tree. Why? Because these drongos usually chase the predator birds like Brahminy Kites. So other little birds build their nest near drongos for protection. I’ve mentioned that they mimic the calls. Yes, they do. Normally other animals or birds get fooled by the calls and get distracted. Then these witty birds steal their food and escapes. Aren’t they rowdy now? Well, they are. But even by doing all these mischiefs, they don’t imbalance the food chain, nor they interrupt the ecosystem. Because everything is connected in nature. And drongos are just a small part of it.

Now, think – what if drongos go extinct? If they do… a large diversity may decrease… Because the drongos may seem like a bully. But they protect some other birds and they play a unique place in the ecosystem. Of course, they aren’t endangered. But the population of racket-tailed drongo is decreasing.

Drongos are extremely mischievous and protective birds. And it is the main reason for liking them. Have you seen Drongos in your area? Or have you seen mixed hunting birds or false alarming birds?