Falculea palliata
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The sickle-billed vanga (Falculea palliata) is a species of bird in the vanga family Vangidae. It is monotypic within the genus Falculea. It is endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitats are tropical dry forests and tropical dry shrubland.
The sickle-billed vanga was described by Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1836, who also erected the genus Falculea to place it in. There are no subspecies. Like many members of the vanga family it was previously placed in another family by early scientists. In the case of this species it was placed with the crows and jays in Corvidae by H. Gadow in the 1883 Catalogue of the British Museum. Within the Vangidae it seems that the closest relatives are the Bernier's vanga (Oriolia bernieri), the white-headed vanga (Artamella virdis) and the three species in the genus Xenopirostris. It is thought that the sickle-billed vanga split from the white-headed vanga around 1.1 million years ago. The two species share similar plumage but are very different in size and bill shape, reflecting the wide plasticity in body shape and feeding ecology in the vanga radiation. Both species, as well as their other close relatives, also share a unique intense...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Ankarana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Sickle-billed Vanga sighting in Ankarana National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 27th most-seen of the 40 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sickle-billed Vanga sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Sickle-billed Vanga sightings, Ankarana National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 50%).
Same family: Vangidae
The closest relatives of the Sickle-billed Vanga that you can see in Ankarana National Park (family Vangidae, Vangas, Helmetshrikes, and Allies) are Blue Vanga (about 30%), Chabert Vanga (about 20%) and Hook-billed Vanga (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sickle-billed Vanga is recorded against all the birds logged in Ankarana National Park (13 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.
