Surniculus lugubris
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The square-tailed drongo-cuckoo (Surniculus lugubris) is a species of cuckoo that resembles a black drongo. It is found along the Himalayas extending east into Southeast Asia. The calls are series of piercing sharp whistles rising in pitch but shrill and choppily delivered. In the past, the species S. lugubris also included the subspecies dicruroides, which is now treated as a separate species, the fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo.
The square-tailed drongo-cuckoo can be easily distinguished by its downcurved beak and the white barred vent and outer undertail, and the tail only notched with slightly flared tips. In flight, a white wing-stripe is visible from below. It is a brood parasite on small babblers. It is not known how or whether the drongo-like appearance benefits this species but it is suspected that it aids in brood-parasitism just as hawk-cuckoos appear like hawks.
The square-tailed drongo-cuckoo was formerly considered conspecific with the fork-tailed drongo-cuckoo (together known as the Asian drongo-cuckoo), but vocal and morphological differences suggested that the species should be split. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bandar Lampung | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 3 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 4 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Guangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 10 | Lucknow | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Night Safari | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 2 | Singapore Zoo | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 3 | River Wonders | 🇸🇬 Singapore |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Drongo-Cuckoo sighting in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, based on 36 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 116th most-seen of the 156 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Drongo-Cuckoo in Sinharaja Forest Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in February to December, the lowest months. That is one of Sinharaja Forest Reserve's driest months, with about 170 mm of rain against 490 mm in November.
Between 2 and 5 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Asian Drongo-Cuckoo sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
29th of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate Asian Drongo-Cuckoo sightings, Sinharaja Forest Reserve ranks 29th at under 5%. The best odds are in Khao Luang National Park (Thailand, about 30%), Taman Negara National Park (Malaysia, about 30%) and Cat Tien National Park (Vietnam, about 20%).
Same family: Cuculidae
The closest relatives of the Asian Drongo-Cuckoo that you can see in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Green-billed Coucal (about 40%), Red-faced Malkoha (about 30%) and Greater Coucal (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Asian Drongo-Cuckoo is recorded against all the birds logged in Sinharaja Forest Reserve (36 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.
