Vanga curvirostris
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
The hook-billed vanga (Vanga curvirostris) is a species of bird in the family Vangidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the hook-billed vanga in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name L'écorcheur de Madagascar and the Latin Collurio Madagascariensis. 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 in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the hook-billed vanga. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius curvirostris and cited Brisson's work. It is now the only species placed in the genus Vanga that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816.
The genus name Vanga is the Malagasy name for the species. The specific epithet curvirostris is from Latin curvus "curved" and -rostrum "billed". Two subspecies are recognised: A 2018 study on avian skull evolution has concluded that the ancestral neornithe had a beak most similar to this species. This suggests a similar ancestral ecological niche for modern birds. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Hook-billed Vanga sighting in Ankarafantsika National Park on a given day, based on 157 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 36th 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.
July, September and November–December
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Hook-billed Vanga in Ankarafantsika National Park on a given day, against about 30% in April, June, August and October, the lowest months. January–March and May have too few records to rate.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Hook-billed Vanga sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Hook-billed Vanga sightings, Ankarafantsika National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%. The best odds are in Berenty Reserve (Madagascar, about 50%).
Same family: Vangidae
The closest relatives of the Hook-billed 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.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Hook-billed Vanga is recorded against all the birds logged in Ankarafantsika National Park (157 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.
