• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Range map
• Resources

Taxonomic note
Dicrurus ludwigii and D. sharpei were previously lumped as D. ludwigii (Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International 2022) but split following Fuchs et al. (2017, 2018) and Fishpool et al. (2021), who showed that sharpei is genetically diverged from ludwigii and that it differs morphologically in a number of ways, such as blue vs green sheen in both sexes (1); all-dark vs white-tipped underwing-coverts in both sexes (sometimes reported inversely, in error) (1); female as glossy as male vs less glossy than male (1); female close in size to male vs perceptibly smaller (on wing length at least 1); and almost squared-off vs more obviously forked tail in both sexes (1), as well as vocally. Suggestions that the recently described taxon occidentalis from W of the R Niger (Fuchs et al. 2018) might form a third species in the complex were rejected by Fishpool et al. (2021), who suggested that it is better treated as a subspecies of sharpei. Two subspecies recognised.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2023. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 8. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v8_Dec23.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2023	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	9,180,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	unknown	-	-	-
Generation length	3.42 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	3-10	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: It is considered fairly common in a variety of woodland, secondary and primary forest habitats and uses degraded forest and forest patches within agricultural areas. Densities were estimated at 7-8 pairs per square kilometer in Gabon (Brosset and Erard 1986), which would indicate that the global population is very large. 
There are suspected to be at least three subpopulations, but likely fewer than 10. The two subspecies show considerable genetic divergence (Fuchs et al. 2018), and there may be two subclades within the western subspecies divided by the Dahomey Gap (Fuchs et al. 2018). The nominate subspecies contains two geographically isolated parts of the range in western Uganda (but these may be contiguous with those in South Sudan and DR Congo) and Kakamega forest in western Kenya (a site where a number of predominately western African species co-occur far to the east of their typical distribution). There may be further division within DR Congo, as it is unclear that the species occupies the whole range south to Upemba (Fishpool et al. 2021). It is suspected that there are at least three and no more than 10 subpopulations.

Trend justification: The area of forest cover within the range of the species is undergoing a moderately rapid reduction (7.1% forest cover loss [data from Global Forest Watch 2023]) over 3-generations. However, the species is tolerant of degraded forest and while it requires some wooded habitats, it favours edge and patchy habitats whose availability may have increased over this same time period. Consequently the impact of the current rate of forest cover loss on the population is unclear and the population trend is considered unknown.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Angola	extant	native	yes
Benin	extant	native	yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native	yes
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Central African Republic	extant	native	yes
Congo	extant	native	yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native	yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native	yes
Equatorial Guinea	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native	yes
Gambia	extant	native	yes
Ghana	extant	native	yes
Guinea	extant	native	yes
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native	yes
Kenya	extant	native	yes
Liberia	extant	native	yes
Mali	extant	native	yes
Niger	possibly extant	native	yes
Nigeria	extant	native	yes
Senegal	extant	native	yes
Sierra Leone	extant	native	yes
South Sudan	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native	yes
Uganda	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Wood & pulp plantations - Agro-industry plantations	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion
Energy production & mining	Mining & quarrying	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem conversion

---

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Sharpe's Drongo Dicrurus sharpei. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/sharpes-drongo-dicrurus-sharpei on 16/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 16/01/2025.