Mayotte drongo  (Dicrurus waldenii)

The Mayotte drongo is classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the IUCN Red List (1).

The Mayotte drongo (Dicrurus waldenii) is a large, black bird, with a deep bluish tinge. The ends of the long forked tail splay out, but in juveniles this tail fork is not so well developed. Juveniles also have more brownish-black plumage and paler underparts (2). Like other drongos, their stout, black bill is arched and slightly hooked (3). The Mayotte drongo’s song is a muddle of chirps and squeaks, and it emits a plitt plitt sound when chasing insects (2).

The Mayotte drongo occurs on Mayotte Island, in the Union of the Comoros, in the Indian Ocean (2).

The Mayotte drongo can be found at the edges of evergreen forests, in secondary forest, plantations, and also in coastal woodland and mangroves. It is thought to prefer wet locations at high altitudes, where there are plenty of tall trees (2).

Like other drongos, this bird is insectivorous, and jumps from branches to snatch insects from the air, returning to the branch to devour them (2) (3). It lays clutches of three eggs (2).

Forests on Mayotte Island are a highly threatened habitat, due to a very high, and increasing, human population converting the forest for agriculture. Any remaining natural forest is highly fragmented (4). This deforestation directly affects the forest habitat of the drongo, but also indirectly affects mangrove habitat due to the large quantity of sediment they accumulate, as newly exposed soil gets washed away. The drongo’s extremely small population, thought to be around only 100 individuals, is extremely vulnerable to the potentially devastating impacts of chance events, such as cyclones, which seem to occur once every ten years or so on the Comoros Islands (2).

There are currently no terrestrial protected areas on Mayotte Island. If the future of the Mayotte drongo is to be secure, protection of vital remaining habitat is required. Further research of this species’ population, range and ecology is also recommended, to enable a conservation plan to be drawn up (2).

View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

For further information on the Mayotte drongo:

• Birdlife International:
  http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=6033&m=0