Endangered
Tablas drongo
Dicrurus menagei
The Tablas drongo is an Asian bird of the family Dicruridae.
Appearance
It is noted by its jet black plumage with a long fish-like tail.
Range and habitat
It is endemic to Tablas Island in the Philippines. It inhabits tropical old-growth forest. Prior to 1998, it was not seen for many decades due to lack of surveys on the island.
This species' main threat is habitat loss with wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of legal and illegal logging, and conversion into farmlands through Slash-and-burn and other methods.The species does not occur at high density even within the little remaining forest cover on Tablas: Mt Palaupau serves as a watershed for Tablas Island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Nest is a small cup made of thin twigs and fibres. Observed nesting in April but not much else is known about its breeding.
In crisis
It is estimated to consist of just 50 to 250 mature adults making it one of the most endangered birds in the Philippines. It is threatened by habitat loss. The IUCN Red List classifies this bird as an endangered species with population estimates of 50 to 250 mature individuals.
There are no species specific conservation programs going on at the moment but conservation actions proposed include more species surveys to better understand habitat and population. Initiate education and awareness campaigns to raise the species's profile and instill pride in locals. Lobby for protection of remaining forest and assess feasibility of reforestation projects,.
Tablas drongo is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Tablas drongo, Wikidata item Q12256227. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
