Square-tailed Drongo ( Dicrurus ludwigii, family: Dicruridae)

square tailed drongo kruger national park birds The Square-tailed Drongo (Latin name Dicrurus ludwigii) is described in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique Roberts number of 542 and you will find a full description of this bird on page 683 also a picture of the Square-tailed Drongo on page 705. The Square-tailed Drongo belongs to the family of birds classified as Dicruridae. According to the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology the Square-tailed Drongo is also known by these other names: Least Drongo.

The map of the Kruger you see on this page shows the areas (coloured orange) where this bird has been identified. The basic information was provided by the Avian Demographic Unit based at UCT and I created the maps from that information ... the green dots show the locations of the various Kruger National Park Rest Camps

The Square-tailed Drongo is neither Endemic or near Endemic to the Kruger National Park.

In terms of distribution of the Square-tailed Drongo in the Kruger National Park you may not see it in all areas. Square-tailed Drongo has been recorded in only 1 sections of the arbitrary Kruger Park regions I selected.

Identification assistance for this avian species ...

One of the first indicators to take note of when trying to identify a bird is it relative size. For example how big is the bird compared to a well known familiar bird. The Square-tailed Drongo is an extremely small bird about half the size of a house sparrow. The height of the Square-tailed Drongo is about 19 cms and its weight is about 30 gms

You will find that the male Square-tailed Drongo plumage and colours are different to that of the female Square-tailed Drongo

  • Head is blue, black.
  • Eye is red.
  • Bill is black.
  • Throat is blue.
  • Back is blue, black.
  • Legs are black.

This bird has normally proportioned leg length.

Main diet items for this bird ...

The Square-tailed Drongo feeds on the ground and in or close to water mainly

Invertebrates

Breeding and nesting habits for this bird ...

The Square-tailed Drongo is monogamous unless its mate dies. In the event of a partner dying Dicrurus ludwigii will seek out a new mate

The nesting habit of Square-tailed Drongo is to create the nest in branches of a tree or shrub. The bird lays eggs which are brown in colour and number between 2 to 4

Habitat and flocking behaviour for this bird ...

The preferred habitats for Square-tailed Drongo are: woodlands . The Square-tailed Drongo is also at home in wetland and bushveld areas.

You will not see Square-tailed Drongo in flocks. The bird prefers to act singly or in pairs.

Names of this avian species in other languages ...

Xhosa ... Intengwana

Zulu ... iNtengwana

Afrikaans ...Kleinbyvanger

German ... Geradschwanzdrongo, Kleinder Drongo

Portuguese ... Drongo-de-cauda-quadrada

French ... Drongo de Ludwig

Dutch ... Rechtstaartdrongo

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For in-depth birding information please refer to these authoritative avian references ...

Robert's 7th edition number ... 542

The main reference source for this data was "Roberts - Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition" . Other references were "Newmans Birds of the Kruger Park" by Keith Newman published circa 1980 . Names in foreign languages were obtained from the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town website , www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za