Bronzed Drongo

The bronzed drongo is a small Indomalayan drongo, 24 cm long, somewhat smaller than the black drongo and with a more metallic gloss and a spangled look on the head, neck and breast. The lores are velvety, the tail is slender and well forked, and immatures have white-tipped axillaries. The nominate race occurs in India and extends to the northern Malay Peninsula (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is resident in forests, found singly or in groups of two or three, catching insects in aerial sallies from favourite perches under the canopy and sometimes joining mixed-species flocks. It is very good at mimicking other birds' calls. Three or four pinkish to brownish eggs are laid in a cup nest in a tree, and the drongos are aggressive and fearless in defence of nest or young. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident forest bird that eats invertebrates, with a Large range of about 448,000 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).