Dicrurus caerulescens
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The white-bellied drongo (Dicrurus caerulescens) is a species of drongo found across the Indian Subcontinent. Like other members of the family Dicruridae, they are insectivorous and mainly black in colour, but with a white belly and vent. Young birds are, however, all black and may be confused with the black drongo, which is smaller and more compact in appearance. The subspecies found in Sri Lanka has white restricted to the vent.
In 1747 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a description of the white-bellied drongo in the second volume of his A Natural History of Uncommon Birds. He used the English name "The Fork- tail'd Indian Butcher-Bird". Edwards based his hand-coloured etching on a specimen that had been sent from Bengal to the silk-pattern designer Joseph Dandridge in London. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the white-bellied drongo with the shrikes in the genus Lanius. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius caerulescens and cited Edwards' work. The specific epithet caerulescens is Latin meaning "bluish". The white-bellied... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 4 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 10 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 12 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 13 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 14 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 16 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 17 | Horton Plains National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 18 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a White-bellied Drongo sighting in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, based on 178 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 10th most-seen of the 233 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.
December and January
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a White-bellied Drongo in Royal Bardia National Park on a given day, against about 40% in February, April, June and November, the lowest months. Those are among Royal Bardia National Park's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 590 mm in July. August has too few records to rate.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-bellied Drongo sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
3rd of 18
Of the 18 parks where we can rate White-bellied Drongo sightings, Royal Bardia National Park ranks 3rd at about 50%. The best odds are in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (Sri Lanka, about 60%) and Ranthambore National Park (India, about 50%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Dicrurus
The closest relatives of the White-bellied Drongo that you can see in Royal Bardia National Park (genus Dicrurus, Drongos) are Black Drongo (about 50%), Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (about 40%) and Hair-crested Drongo (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-bellied Drongo is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Bardia National Park (178 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.
