A red-eyed all-black upright bird with a narrow tail that splays out into a fork. Pairs and singles occasionally join mixed-species flocks in a variety of wooded and open country, although they avoid forest. The species sits in the canopy and midstory, hawking insects from a perch, and it sometimes associates with large mammals, eating prey that they flush. It is loud and noisy, singing a variety of unmelodic, noisy, and mechanical notes, sometimes including imitations of other bird species. The similar Square-tailed Drongo is smaller than the Fork-tailed Drongo and has a square-cut tail.