Philippine Drongo-Cuckoo

The Philippine drongo-cuckoo (Surniculus velutinus) is a bird of the cuckoo family found only in the Philippines. It was formerly a subspecies of the Square-tailed drongo-cuckoo. It is found tropical moist lowland forest up to 1,000 meters above sea level. It is declining due to habitat loss. == Description and taxonomy == It is 23 centimetres (9.1 in) long. The black bill is slender and curved and the tail is fairly long and slightly forked. The plumage is mostly glossy blue-black apart from a white bar on the underwing and white marks on the thigh feathers and on the underside of the tail. Young birds are duller than the adults but otherwise similar unlike young Square-tailed drongo-cuckoo which are spotted white. The call is a repeated series of 8 or 9 ascending notes. It belongs to the genus Surniculus along with the Square-tailed drongo-cuckoo (S. lugubris). The two were previously classified as a single species but are now often separated based on differences in calls and juvenile plumage. === Subspecies === Two subspecies are recognized: S. v. velutinus – Found on Mindanao, Samar, Leyte, Bohol and the Mindanao S. v. chalybaeus – Found on Luzon, Panay and Negros. S. v.…