Greater & Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus & Dicrurus remifer)

Since these two species are so similar and are found in roughly the same area, I am going to combine the profiles of the Greater & Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus & Dicrurus remifer).  You can tell them apart by the size of the bird, the crest on the Greater RTD and the shape of the tails.  The Greater has a fork shaped tail and the Lesser’s tail is more of a wedge shape.

This is a Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo from Mae Ping NP in Thailand with the smooth head and wedge-shaped tail.

IMG_0236Here is a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo with the forked tail in Taiping.

IMG_1174Both birds have a large, varied range in South-east Asia with the Greater having a larger distribution including India than the Lesser.  I saw both birds in northern Thailand, in Doi Inthanon and Mae Ping, also in Taiping and Taman Negara in Malaysia.

RTDGreater RTDLesserLEARN MORE ABOUT THESE BIRDS

Wikipedia – Greater

Wikipedia – Lesser

Birdlife – Greater

Birdlife – Lesser

Xeno-Canto

VIDEOS

A Gretaer RTD in India.

And another one singing.

See how his tail floats while in flight!

 

And here’s a Lesser from Singapore.