Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Dicrurus paradiseus (Linnaeus, 1766)

≈32 cmLength86 gWeight

It has greatly elongated outer tail feathers with vanes only at the tips, and is the largest drongo across most of its range.

Busiest months: February–March · Most records: India, Thailand, Singapore

Looks like Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

Least Concern

How to identify

Field marks

Outer tail feathers elongated, with vanes only at the tips
Curled crest arises above the bill and varies between subspecies
Largest drongo across most of its range

Male, female and young

Juvenile duller and may lack a crest.

Voice

Calls are extremely varied; often begins calling in the early morning with a metallic “tunk-tunk-tunk”, and also mimics other birds.

Similar species

Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo

Can be confused with Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo in the eastern Himalayas; Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo has flat vanes at the tail tips and almost no crest.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: February–March · Most records: India, Thailand, Singapore

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo has been recorded at 557 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 15 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

Kanha NP – Mukki ZoneIndia7,897 records
Dairy Farm Nature ParkSingapore2,752 records
Thattekkad Bird SanctuaryIndia2,080 records

More places

Sepilok – Rainforest Discovery CenterMalaysia2,046 records
Kerala Agricultural UniversityIndia1,871 records
Kanha Tiger Reserve – Mukki GateIndia1,758 records
Kanha NP – Kanha ZoneIndia1,655 records
Singapore Botanic GardensSingapore1,640 records
Gunung Panti Recreational Forest – Panti Bird Sanctuary and North AreaMalaysia1,489 records
Chidyatapu Biological ParkIndia1,382 records

Countries and regions with the most records

India Thailand Singapore Malaysia Vietnam Cambodia China Nepal

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The greater racket-tailed drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) is a medium-sized Asian bird which is distinctive in having elongated outer tail feathers with webbing restricted to the tips. They are placed along with other drongos in the family Dicruridae. They are conspicuous in the forest habitats often perching in the open and by attracting attention with a wide range of loud calls that include perfect imitations of many other birds.

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