Dicrurus forficatus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The crested drongo (Dicrurus forficatus) is a passerine bird in the family Dicruridae. It is black with a bluish-green sheen, a distinctive crest on the forehead and a forked tail. Its habitat is lowland forests, both dry and humid, and open savannah country. It is a common bird and the IUCN has listed it as "least concern".
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the crested drongo in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Madagascar. He used the French name Le grand gobe-mouche noir hupé de Madagascar and the Latin Muscicapa Madagascariensis nigra major cristata. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the crested drongo. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zürich Zoo | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | |
| 2 | Botanical and Zoological Garden of Tsimbazaza | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Likely
About 60% of wildlife watchers report a Crested Drongo sighting in Ranomafana National Park on a given day, based on 555 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 11th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Crested Drongo in Ranomafana National Park on a given day, against about 50% in August and October, the lowest months. That is one of Ranomafana National Park's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against 80 mm in September. January and June have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Crested Drongo sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Crested Drongo sightings, Ranomafana National Park ranks 3rd at about 60%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 90%) and Berenty Reserve (Madagascar, about 90%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Crested Drongo that you can see in Ranomafana National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Madagascar Bulbul (about 80%), Souimanga Sunbird (about 70%) and Madagascar White-eye (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Crested Drongo is recorded against all the birds logged in Ranomafana National Park (555 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
