Surniculus lugubris
Silhouette: Nicolas Huet le Jeune and Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Drongo-Cuckoo sighting in Yala National Park on a given day, based on 59 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 140th most-seen of the 220 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–April and October–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Asian Drongo-Cuckoo in Yala National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January and May–September, the lowest months. Those are among Yala National Park's wettest months, with about 180 mm of rain a month against 35 mm in June.
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.
11th of 33
Of the 33 parks where we can rate Asian Drongo-Cuckoo sightings, Yala National Park ranks 11th at about 10%. 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 Yala National Park (family Cuculidae, Cuckoos) are Greater Coucal (about 40%), Asian Koel (about 30%) and Blue-faced Malkoha (about 30%), 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 Yala National Park (59 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.
