Black Drongo

Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) is a glossy all-black Asian songbird with a deeply forked tail and a strong slightly hooked bill. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It perches conspicuously in farmland and light woodland, launching agile flights after insects and aggressively defending feeding and nesting areas; Japan lies outside its normal range and records are accidental. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).