Schetba rufa
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The rufous vanga (Schetba rufa) is a species of bird in the family Vangidae. It is monotypic within the genus Schetba. It is endemic to 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 rufous vanga in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name La pie-griesche rousse de Madagascar and the Latin Lanius Madagascariensis rufus. 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 rufous vanga. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius rufus and cited Brisson's work. The rufous vanga is now the only species placed in the genus Schetba that was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831.
Two subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous Vanga sighting in Mantadia National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 87th most-seen of the 98 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Rufous Vanga in Mantadia National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May–September and November–December, the lowest months. That is one of Mantadia National Park's driest months, with about 70 mm of rain against 340 mm in January. January to April have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rufous 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.
3rd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Rufous Vanga sightings, Mantadia National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 60%) and Ranomafana National Park (Madagascar, about 20%).
Same family: Vangidae
The closest relatives of the Rufous Vanga that you can see in Mantadia National Park (family Vangidae, Vangas, Helmetshrikes, and Allies) are Red-tailed Vanga (about 50%), Common Newtonia (about 50%) and Nuthatch-Vanga (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rufous Vanga is recorded against all the birds logged in Mantadia National Park (9 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.
