Greater Racket-tailed Drongo without tail streamers? (1 Viewer)

Dear members and bird watchers!

Drongo from earlier today. Kaeng Krachan in Thailand

My book Birds of Thailand only have one bird with the curling backward crest and this is the Greater racket-tailed. But the bird have red eye and my bird have black eye.

There is another bird with crest, the Hair-crested Drongo, but this crest looks, yes, like hair strands.

Can my bird, please see attached picture be a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo that have lost the streamers?

I have seen several with only one streamer.

All help would be appreciated

Kind regards and happy birding
Aladdin

I can only see 8 tail feathers there, which suggests it is in moult with the long ones dropped :t:

Nutcracker said:

I can only see 8 tail feathers there, which suggests it is in moult with the long ones dropped :t:

Click to expand...

Thank you very much!

Moulting, this was interesting. I have nothing about this in my book and on Wikipedia.

Do you mean the 2 streamers? They loose them during non breeding or do you mean 8 tail feathers? Sorry for all the questions, maybe you have a link to any info about the Drongo.

I use my book and Wikipedia

Kind Regards and happy birding
Aladdin

All birds drop their old feathers at least once a year; with the big wing and tail feathers they do this slowly just a pair of feathers at a go so they don't go bald / flightless (except ducks, which can swim to safety when they can't fly). With tail feathers, the outermost pair are dropped first, and then each pair in to the centre of the tail in turn as the new outer tail feathers grow to full size. Most birds start their moult at the end of the breeding season, which, for northern hemisphere birds, typically means around now. On wikipedia, head here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulting
Hope this helps!

Nutcracker said:

All birds drop their old feathers at least once a year; with the big wing and tail feathers they do this slowly just a pair of feathers at a go so they don't go bald / flightless (except ducks, which can swim to safety when they can't fly). With tail feathers, the outermost pair are dropped first, and then each pair in to the centre of the tail in turn as the new outer tail feathers grow to full size. Most birds start their moult at the end of the breeding season, which, for northern hemisphere birds, typically means around now. On wikipedia, head here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulting
Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Thank you very much!!

It helped a lot, when I hear moulting I think to breeding plumage. Never thought about the changing the feathers.

I read the article and now I can say that I have learned something new.

Thank you again!

Kind regards
Aladdin