Black drongo
Dicrurus macrocercus Vieillot, 1817
The black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) is a bird in the family Dicruridae, order Passeriformes, placed in the subgroup of songbirds and other perching birds. It is a small bird with an adult body mass from 46 to 51 g, a representative value of 48.3 g, and a wingspan of 38.4 cm.
Quick facts about the black drongo
The black drongo is an invertivore and a carnivore by trophic level; it lives in shrubland, has a perching lifestyle and is sedentary. Its geographic range covers 9,351,000 km², and the IUCN Red List assesses it as Least Concern, not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 46 g – 51 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- 28 cmsrc for Length
- Wingspan
- 38.4 cmsrc for Wingspan
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- arthropodssrc for Main food
- Habitat
- shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.2 – 3.35src for Young per litter or clutch
- Lifestyle
- Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the black drongo?
Photos of the black drongo
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the black drongo live?
Not recorded
What is the black drongo?
The black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) is a small Asian passerine bird of the drongo family Dicruridae. It is a common resident breeder in much of tropical southern Asia from southwest Iran through Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka east to southern China and Indonesia and accidental visitor of Japan. It is an all black bird with a distinctive forked tail and measures 28 cm (11 in) in length. It feeds on insects, and is common in open agricultural areas and light forest throughout its range, perching conspicuously on a bare perch or along power or telephone lines.
The species is known for its aggressive behaviour towards much larger birds, such as crows, never hesitating to dive-bomb any bird of prey that invades its territory. This behaviour earns it the informal name of king crow. Smaller birds often nest in the well-guarded vicinity of a nesting black drongo. Previously grouped along with the African fork-tailed drongo (Dicrurus adsimilis), the Asian forms are now treated as a separate species with several distinct populations.
The black drongo is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the IUCN Red List, due to its large range and relative commonness. It has been introduced to some Pacific islands, where it has thrived and become abundant to the point of threatening and causing the extinction of native and endemic bird species there.
From the Wikipedia article “Black drongo” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_drongo&oldid=1373899377), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the black drongo sound like?
Is the black drongo endangered?
The black drongo is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the black drongo classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderPasseriformes
- familyDicruridae
- genusDicrurus
- SpeciesDicrurus macrocercus Vieillot, 1817
Synonyms Dicrurus ater, Muscicapa atra
Other names and names in other languages (52)
- ফেঁচুAssamese
- কালো ফিঙেBangla
- Drongo duBreton
- drongo reialCatalan
- Шим дронгоMari
- drongo černýCzech
- Sort DrongoDanish
- KönigsdrongoGerman
- FahnendrongoGerman
- nigra drongoEsperanto
- Drongo realSpanish
- nurmdrongoEstonian
- بوچانگای سیاهPersian
- mustadrongoFinnish
- Drongo royalFrench
- Drongó dubhIrish
- કાળો કોશીGujarati
- דרונגו שחורHebrew
- királydrongóHungarian
- Srigunting hitamIndonesian
- Drongo neroItalian
- オウチュウJapanese
- ಭರದ್ವಾಜKannada
- 검은바람까마귀Korean
- juodasis drongasLithuanian
- melnais drongoLatvian
- ആനറാഞ്ചിMalayalam
- ആനറാഞ്ചി പക്ഷിMalayalam
- कोतवालMarathi
- Burung cecawi hitamMalay
- कालो चिबेNepali
- KoningsdrongoDutch
- Zwarte DrongoDutch
- କଜଳପାତିOdia
- ਕਾਲ ਕਲੀਚੀPunjabi
- dziwogon czarnyPolish
- dziwogon długosternyPolish
- drongo-realPortuguese
- Чёрный дронгоRussian
- drongo lýrochvostýSlovak
- црни дронгоSerbian
- Crni drongoSerbian
- svart drongoSwedish
- கரிக்குருவிTamil
- இரட்டைவால் குருவிTamil
- นกแซงแซวหางปลาThai
- Kara DrongoTurkish
- дронго чорнийUkrainian
- 烏秋Chinese
- 大卷尾Chinese
- 大卷尾〔黑卷尾〕Chinese
- 黑卷尾Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the black drongo
Other species in the same genus Dicrurus.
Greater Racket-tailed drongo
Dicrurus paradiseus
Ashy drongo
Dicrurus leucophaeus
Bronzed drongo
Dicrurus aeneus
Fork-tailed drongo
Dicrurus adsimilis
Andaman drongo
Dicrurus andamanensis
White-bellied drongo
Dicrurus caerulescens
CompareBlack drongo vs Greater Racket-tailed drongoBlack drongo vs Ashy drongoBlack drongo vs Bronzed drongoBlack drongo vs Fork-tailed drongo
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the black drongo?
The black drongo is a bird in the family Dicruridae and the order Passeriformes, grouped with songbirds and other perching birds.
How much does a black drongo weigh?
An adult black drongo weighs from 46 to 51 g, with a representative value of 48.3 g. This places it in the small size class.
What is the wingspan of the black drongo?
The black drongo has a wingspan of 38.4 cm.
What does the black drongo eat?
The black drongo is an invertivore, which places it at the carnivore trophic level.
What habitat does the black drongo live in?
The black drongo lives in shrubland. It has a perching lifestyle and is sedentary.
Is the black drongo endangered?
No. The black drongo is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How many eggs does the black drongo lay?
The black drongo has a representative clutch size of 3.35 eggs.
Who named the black drongo?
The black drongo, Dicrurus macrocercus, was named by Vieillot, 1817.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-drongo
“Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-drongo.
@misc{black_drongo_2026,
title = {Black drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-drongo},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}