ML132197991

Age and sex

Juvenile, Unknown sex - X

Observation details

Ended 2018, with one more addition to my Karnataka bird list. This is called as Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo or Asian Drongo Cuckoo. This was a lifer at Thattekaad, Kerala back in December 2015. But I never saw it again. This is not a very rare bird. But I was not seeing in many places wherever I was visited for birding. I was asking others about the possibility of sighting this within Karnataka. I knew about couple of sightings in my hometown but not regular records. So I thought I will not see this again for long time. Today I was in a location which I visited 4 times in a span of 10 days to photograph a elusive Kingfisher(ODKf). Was very disappointed of not seeing it today though saw it on past 3 visits. We packed up at noon and when I was about to leave the place, this juvenile bird came near to me. I thought I will take good vertical shots of Bronzed drongo which very common in this place. But when I looked through camera I was in for surprise. It has a body shape of a drongo with head of a cuckoo. And so got an amazing sighting today as a replacement for the Kingfisher which I was not able to to photograph on last 4 visits. This bird is a brood parasite(i.e., it lays egg on other bird's nest), like other cuckoo and koel species. This one has evolved to mimick the drongos with fork-tails. So this bird will confuse newbie to birding. Even I was confused when I saw it first time. This species got added as a 401 species to my Karnataka list as per eBird.org . This bird is relatively easy for people who stay near good forest patch or village area. But for me this was a difficult bird. Finally I was able to see it again and that too in my own hometown. What a great way to end the year for birding! :D

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 80D

Lens

TAMRON SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2 A022

ISO

1600

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

1/250 sec

Dimensions

2000 pixels x 3000 pixels

Original file size

2.55 MB