Fanti drongo

The Fanti drongo (Dicrurus atactus) is a species of bird in the family Dicruridae. It is found in sub-Sahara Africa from Sierra Leone to southwestern Nigeria.

Fanti drongo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Dicruridae
Genus:	Dicrurus
Species:	D. atactus
Binomial name
Dicrurus atactus Oberholser, 1899
Synonyms
Dicrurus modestus atactus

The Fanti drongo was described by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser in 1899 from a specimen collected in the Fanti district of Ghana. He considered it as a subspecies of the velvet-mantled drongo (Dicrurus modestus) and introduced the trinomial name Dicrurus modestus atactus.[1] The specific epithet atactus is from the Ancient Greek ατακτος ataktos "disorderly" or "lawless".[2] Based on the results of a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018, it is now treated as a separate species.[3][4]

References

1. Oberholser, Harry C. (1899). "A list of birds collected by Mr R.P. Currie in Liberia". Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 22 (1182): 25-37 [35].
2. Jobling, J.A. (2019). del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J.; Christie, D.A.; de Juana, E. (eds.). "Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology". Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
3. Fuchs, J.; De Swardt, D.H.; Oatley, G.; Fjeldså, J.; Bowie, R.C.K. (2018). "Habitat-driven diversification, hybridization and cryptic diversity in the Fork-tailed Drongo (Passeriformes: Dicruridae: Dicrurus adsimilis)". Zoologica Scripta. 47 (3): 266–284. doi:10.1111/zsc.12274.
4. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David, eds. (2019). "Orioles, drongos, fantails". World Bird List Version 9.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 3 February 2019.