Hair-Crested Drongo

I've got one photo of a hair-crested drongo near where we stayed at Diphlu Lodge next to Kaziranga NP in Assam, India. I believe my guide, Bablu, indentified it as such and I have it written in my notes I kept while with Bablue that day, but no one has confirmed the identification on iNaturalist. 

There are eleven subspecies and this appears to be the nominate subspecies, Dicrurus hottentottus hottentottus. It is found in peninsular India, the Himalayan foothills from Jammu and Kashmir, eastern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh east to Bangladesh and northeastern India (Arunachal Pradesh and southern Assam hills, northern, central and southern Myanmar, northern Thailand, southern China, Cambodia, southern Laos and southern Viet Nam. 

Range of the hair-crested drongo from Birds of the World. The grayish-blue is year-round and the orange is breeding.

It has long hair-like feathers springing from the forehead, extending over the hindcrown and upper back, black plumage, highly glossed metallic blue green, a noticeably pointed and down-curved bill and distinctive nearly-square-ended tail. 

Illustration of the subspecies hottentottus from Birds of the World. 

 

This has the large square-ended tail which looks very similar to a photo of one I've seen in a similar angled photo, a long down-curved bill, metallic blue-green on the side neck and upper chest and hair-like feathers springing from the forehead. 

Black Drongo

Updated: May 10, 2025: As I furthered my posts on various drongos and looked at my photos on iNaturalist, I found that the bird in my original post was identified as a bronzed drongo on iNaturalist and that I saw the black drongo in Varanasi while boating on the Ganges (photos taken with my iPhone). Further demonstrating that I have much to learn about drongos. 

There are a number of different species of drongo and I never got comfortable with them. I would hear a guide mention them and not see them. I couldn't tell them apart. I've seen four species and I have no good pictures of them. These posts should help with my knowledge of them. I got some photos of black drongos with my iPhone while floating on the Ganges in a boat in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. While trying to enhance my photos on Light Room I got some weird colors coming out of them. 

It is all black with a long forked tail. There are seven subspecies and we saw Dicrurus macrocercus albirictus, found in the Himalayas from northern and eastern Pakistan east to western and northern Myanmar and southeastern Tibet, south to southeastern Pakistan and across central India. Below is an illustration of a black drongo from Birds of the World, but a different subspecies, macrocercus, the nominate subspecies which is in southern India and a little smaller. 

A range map from Birds of the World follows:

Yellow-Breasted Chat

My post Saturday on lazuli buntings and Sunday on the green-tailed towhee mentioned a man I met at Big Morongo Canyon Reserve. Today's post continues the story. After watching the feeders for awhile the man asked if I'd ever seen a yellow-breasted chat. I said "no." He asked if I'd like to see one, or at least try to see one, as they are very difficult to see. I said "sure," so he said to follow him. We walked down the trail to the south and then around one of the "closed" signs where we crossed a portion of the Trex path that was missing down to a meadow where a yellow-breasted chat can usually be found in a large tree on the eastern side of the meadow. He played the various sounds a yellow-breasted chat makes from Merlin and it sounded so good I thought it was the chat, itself, instead of Merlin. It has quite an array of different calls. Then the chat flew out of the tree across the meadow. He said he had to go, but now that I knew the call I could wait for it to come back. He said on the way out he might scare it back my way. After sitting awhile, I gave up and headed back up the trail to go home. As I was driving home I thought of the photo of the chat in Merlin he'd shown me and I wondered if I'd actually seen one near the feeders earlier. A strikingly bright yellow bird had flown into the trees around the feeder and I'd taken a few photos before it flew away. When I got home I looked through my photos specifically to see if the yellow bird I'd seen was a chat. It was! I ran my photo through iNaturalist and it confirmed it was a chat, the one I said I'd never seen, just shortly after seeing one!

There are two subspecies of yellow-breasted chat. I saw Turdus virens auricollis, the western subspecies, as illustred above in Birds of the World. This subspecies has a head and back that are less green and more gray, a longer tail and the breast often is washed with some orange, in addition to the yellow. 

This is by far my best photo. The one below is blurry, but gives more of a chest shot. 

Up until 2017 it was included as a member of the New World warbler family, Parulidae, and was considered the largest warbler. It was then moved into its own family, Icterridae, distinct from the New World blackbird family of Icteridae. When it was originally identified in 1758, it was placed in the thrush family. My friend kind of explained this to me, mentioning thrush, then warbler, then tanager, instead of blackbird. I knew he was being modest when he disclaimed being a bird expert. 

Here is the yellow-breasted chat range from Birds of the World.

I was incredibly happy to find three birds I'd never seen before. I am usually ecstatic to find even one. But this Saturday I found three and all related to this new friend I met, whose name I do not know. 

Green-Tailed Towhee

Yesterday I went to Big Morongo Canyon Preserve to look for lazuli buntings, as I described in my post yesterday. I got there before the gate opened and went to the next door park to go in the back way. A man was busy looking in a tree and I stopped to talk to him. He was looking for a barn owl which was nesting in a whole in the tree. I went off on my own, then ran into him again later on on one of the trails in the preserve. I discovered that we were the same age and that he is incredibly knowledgeable about birds. I was amazed as he would hear a bird sound and then identify the bird. He showed me how to use Merlin to identify the sounds of birds. I expressed my desire to see a lazuli bunting and then went off on my own again. Later, I saw him again at the bird feeders and proudly told him I'd seen the lazuli buntings and he was excited for me. I listened to him talking to a woman next to him, answering her questions and then he identified a green-tailed towhee on the ground. I butted in and asked where? He identified a bird that looked much like a California towhee, darting in and out of the bushes, with a red cap and some greenish coloring on the tail and on the side. I was excited as this was the second bird I'd seen that day I'd never seen before. As I looked closer I was a little shocked that I'd not recognized it as different. It was a lot more colorful than the California towhee that I see so much of. 

An illustration of the green-tailed towhee from Birds of the World. 

I only saw one and only got a couple of decent photos of it. It was in the shadows and so the colors did not stand out at the time like they do now that they have been manipulated in Light Room. 

This is a range map from Birds of the World. The map makes it appear that they are year-round residents of our area, but my knowledgeable new friend said that they are normally seen at higher elevations. 

Wikipedia notes that it is the smallest towhee. It also says that it is "fairly tame, but often stays hidden under a bush. It is fairly common in habitats with sage brush and other such bushes...[but] it is uncommonly seen because of its tendency to stay under cover." 

Lazuli Bunting

I've been going to Big Morongo Canyon Reserve for a number of years and it seems like I always miss the lazuli buntings that seems to go through there for just a short time each year. I will hear a regular there say, "a lazuli bunting came through last week, but it is not here anymore." So when a friend I following posted photos of lazuli buntings at Big Morongo on iNaturalist during the week I decided I needed to go the next Saturday. Friday I checked on eBird and someone noted seeing three lazuli buntings. 

I looked to the north where I thought they had been seen and found nothing. Later as I walked up to the bird feeders I asked three people there if they'd seen any and they said, "yeah, we just saw three of them on the feeders. I'm sure they'll come back." So I parked myself there for awhile and they did come back. I saw as many as five or six at a time, but they were smaller than I had envisioned. 

Birds of the World notes that in California it breeds mainly west of the Sierra Nevada and in the Mono Lake Basin, Owens Valley, and White, Inyo, Grapevine, Panamint, Kingston and Clark Mountains. So although the range map makes it look like it breeds in southwestern California, it confirms that our area is for migration only. 

Range of lazuli bunting from Birds of the World. 

It gets its name from the color of the gemstone lapis lazuli. 

Lapis lazuli with gold colored pyrite mixed on. From Wikipedia. 

The male has a bright blue head and back, white wingbars, a light rust breast and white belly. The female is brown. I got a poor photo of a female, but only noticed one. 

An illustration of a male from Birds of the World. 

Some photos from Big Morongo. 

Gadwall

I just realized I've done a post on every duck species I've seen except the gadwall and I realize it is not a fluke, but a psychological barrier. I don't like gadwalls. They're bland and ugly while most ducks have at least some flashes of brilliant color. They're kind of like the ducks in military fatigues that are not meant to stand out. In fact, I realize I usually don't even photograph gadwalls anymore. Just compare them to the green-winged teal I posted on yesterday with flashes of color all over it.  I was surprised to see gadwalls in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India and would not have recognized them if my guide, Bablu, had not pointed them out. So at least this post may help me sort out why they looked different as they don't appear to be a different species. 

Gadwall female and male at Bolsa Chica.

Gadwall female at Bolsa Chica.

Male and female at Irvine Ranch Water District

Male at IRWD.

Female gadwall illustration from Birds of the World.

Male gadwall illustration from Birds of the World.

Male from the Western Range of Kaziranga NP in Assam, India, and a female in the photo below. 

Horrendous photo from the Eastern Range of Kaziranga NP. 

As I line them up together I'm not seeing the differences I thought I was seeing in India. Below is the range from Birds of the World. 

They actually have a wider range in Africa, Asia and Europe than they have in North America. It appears that they have a year-round presence in Southern California and a winter range in India. 

The illustrations make them look prettier than the photos, particularly the male. But they do have an amazing range and are obviously a resilient species. 

Eurasian Green-Winged Teal

The green-winged teal or American green-winged teal is treated as the same species as the Eurasian green-winged teal by Birds of the World. They are treated as separate species by iNaturalist and Wikipedia, the two other sources I usually look at. Wikipedia notes that whether they are one or two species is still being reviewed by the American Ornithologists Union while the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Birdlife International treat them as separate species. 

I saw my first Eurasian green-winged teals in Kaziranga NP in Assam, India in December 2024. They were at some distance from our vehicle in a lake surrounded by other kinds of ducks in the Eastern Range. 

Since I only saw, or at least only photographed the more colorful males, I show illustrations of the male Eurasian green-winged teal from Birds of the World, one standing and one flying. 

Next I show the illustration of a standing green-winged teal or American green-winged teal from Birds of the World. 

The most obvious differences are that the breast of the American is darker than the Eurasian, the American has a vertical white line on the side that the Eurasian does not have, and the Eurasian has a white and black line at the outer edge of the secondary feathers while the American has only a black line. Below are two photos of American green-winged teals I took in Newport Bay. These photos clearly show the vertical white line on the side that they Eurasians do not have and they show the lighter belly which looks like the belly on the Eurasian teal and not the American teal. 

This photo taken at the Leona Turnbill Birding Center in Port Aransas, Texas have a little more colorful chest and breast, but not as dark as the illustration has. So it appears that the vertical line on the side may be the best indicator, other than, of course, geography. Below is the range of the Eurasian green-winged teal from Wikipedia (the range map from Birds of the World includes the American green-winged teal as well). Assam, India is clearly where they are wintering.