Short-tailed Drongo Dicrurus striatus and Palawan Drongo D. palawanensis are split from Hair-crested Drongo D. hottentottus (Clements 2007:­­579)

Summary: The Short-tailed Drongo of the southern Philippines, and the Palawan Drongo of the southwestern Palawan group of islands are now considered distinct species.

Details: As with most taxa long subsumed in the Dicrurus hottentottus complex (e.g., Vaurie 1962), both D. striatus and D. palawanensis were originally named as full species. The molecular phylogeny of Shakya et al. (2020) is consistent with treating striatus plus samarensis as subspecies of D. balicassius rather than D. hottentottus, but the difference in tail shape argues against this treatment (previously adopted by Gill et al. 2023). Dicrurus striatus was tentatively split by del Hoyo and Collar (2016), followed by Allen (2020) and Gill et al. (2023, IOC v.13.2) and WGAC and Clements et al. (2023) adopt this treatment. Dicrurus palawanensis (plus probably cuyensis) is shown in Shakya et al. (2020) to be better treated as a full species, and this is also followed by WGAC and Clements et al. (2023).

English names: The English names follow those in use in del Hoyo and Collar (2016), Allen (2020), and Gill et al. (2023, IOC v.13.2).