Blue Vanga

Blue Vanga

Cyanolanius madagascarinus

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCNTNear ThreatenedVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~30% · Possible
at Ankarafantsika National Park

In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%

152 Verified sightings at Ankarafantsika National Park From 2019 to 2026
678 In all 3 parks
November Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Blue Vanga

The Madagascar blue vanga (Cyanolanius madagascarinus) is a bird species in the family Vangidae. It is found in Madagascar, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.

In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the blue vanga in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name Le pie-griesche bleu de Madagascar and the Latin name Lanius Madagascariensis coeruleus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition in 1766, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the blue vanga. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Loxia madagascarina and cited Brisson's work. The species is now placed in the genus Cyanolanius that was introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1854.

The blue vanga... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Call0:22

Madagascar · 2012

© Peter Boesman · XC762730 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call0:28

Madagascar · 2020

© Ken Behrens · XC603966 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:20

Madagascar · 2012

© Hans Matheve · XC154933 · CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Ranomafana National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~40%
2 Ankarafantsika National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~30%
3 Mantadia National Park 🇲🇬 Madagascar
~30%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Blue Vanga in Ankarafantsika National Park?

Possible

About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Vanga sighting in Ankarafantsika National Park on a given day, based on 152 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 38th most-seen of the 83 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Blue Vanga in Ankarafantsika National Park?

November

In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Vanga in Ankarafantsika National Park on a given day, against about 10% in September, the lowest month. January–March and May have too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see a Blue Vanga?

Between 6 and 9 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue Vanga sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Ankarafantsika National Park the best place to see a Blue Vanga?

2nd of 3

Of the 3 parks where we can rate Blue Vanga sightings, Ankarafantsika National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Ranomafana National Park (Madagascar, about 40%).

Which relatives of the Blue Vanga live in Ankarafantsika National Park?

Same family: Vangidae

The closest relatives of the Blue Vanga that you can see in Ankarafantsika National Park (family Vangidae, Vangas, Helmetshrikes, and Allies) are Common Newtonia (about 80%), Rufous Vanga (about 60%) and Sickle-billed Vanga (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Blue Vanga sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Blue Vanga is recorded against all the birds logged in Ankarafantsika National Park (152 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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