here's my friend Ashy giving me the eye again. we're quite good friends, strictly on a first name basis. indeed Ashy and his drongo companions are very well liked for good reason. they could be called protector birds of sorts, aggressively chasing away predators of many of the smaller songbirds we love to have around. wherever drongos are around the other species tend to show up, feeling safer and more relaxed.
that deeply forked tail gives them the edge in flight enabling them to outmaneuver much larger birds so enemies respect him and keep their distance. they call him by his proper name Dicrurus leucophaeus but the drongo family generally likes having the company or lesser birds who pose no threat.
Ashy whistles and squawks in between some incomplete mimics of the other birds so it's hard to know what he's giving me the eye for. maybe it's just some healthy scepticism of the camera but they like us putting out water for them here and there and making sure they have plenty of mosquitoes and other choice morsels to feed on.
