Vangidae Vangas, Helmetshrikes, and Allies
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
Following a storyline repeated on many isolated island environments, a passerine immigrant to Madagascar millions of years ago gave rise to descendants with a bewildering array of bill types perfectly suited to the types of vegetation that evolved around them. From sharp pincers to long, decurved forceps, the bills of vangids have captured in this biogeographic microcosm a level of feedingtool diversity displayed by whole communities of songbirds on the mainland. These Malagasy endemics are allied with a diverse group of lightly proportioned, vaguely shrike-like passerines in Africa and Asia, all of which are more closely related to the core vangids than they are to any other passerine group.
Habitat
Vangids live in all forested habitats of Madagascar and from scrub and open woodlands to rainforest in Africa and Asia.
Diet and Foraging
The vangids are primarily insectivorous, although some species may also take small vertebrates like frogs and lizards. The wide range of bill shapes found in this family allows closely related species to exploit different ecological niches. The large-billed Helmet Vanga Euryceros prevostii, for example, takes and dismembers prey as large as small vertebrates by using a sit-and-wait, then pounce, strategy; the small-billed Tylas Vanga Tylas eduardi feeds on smaller prey such as caterpillars and spiders by gleaning and hovering, catching many prey on the wing; Nut hatch Vanga Hypositta corallirostris jumps and climbs up trunks in search of prey in bark fissures; and Sickle-billed Vanga Falculea palliata probes into crevices and holes, often using its upper bill alone, after a variety of invertebrate prey. Helmetshrikes, woodshrikes, and Philentomas generally take invertebrate prey, with fruit as a minor component of the diet, especially in forest-dwelling species. Many vangas, helmetshrikes, and woodshrikes are active participants in mixed-species foraging flocks.
Breeding
Most vangas are monogamous and breed as single pairs. However, at least two species, the Rufous Vanga Schetba rufa and Chabert Vanga Leptopterus chabert, are cooperative breeders, and it appears that the Sickle-billed Vanga and Bernier’s Vanga Oriolia bernieri are cooperatively polyandrous, with a female mat ing with several males, all of which take part in parental care. Most vangids build a nest that is at least vaguely cupshaped and placed atop a branch or branches, or suspended from the tip of a branch. Many species use spiderwebs in nest construction. Leptopterus makes a bulky stick nest and Hypositta a cup of tree fern fibers. Females typically lay 2 to 5 eggs. In all species studied, males and females appear to contribute equally to parental care, with both sexes constructing the nest, incubating the eggs, brooding chicks, and provisioning the young. In the helmetshrikes (apparently all cooperative breeders), helpers of both sexes contribute greatly to all aspects of parental care. Vangid incubation takes 16 to 24 days, and nestlings leave the nest after 17 to 24 days in the nest. They are often fed by their parents, or other group members if present, for 10 to 12 weeks after fledging.
Conservation Status
Habitats in Madagascar are under tremendous pressure from an expanding human population; dry forests and scrublands are being burned for agriculture or threatened by grazing, and wet forests are being harvested for timber and cleared for agriculture. The five species of immediate conservation concern in Madagascar (33% of species there) are all range-limited species with small population sizes (1 NT, 3 VU, 1 EN). Helmetshrikes on the mainland of Africa are not doing much better, with three species (38%) of conservation concern (1 NT, 1 VU, 1 EN), all limited-range and suffering from the conversion of habitat for agriculture. The eight species of shrike-flycatchers, flycatcher-shrikes, and philentomas include one near threatened species of philentoma that is at risk from its small range and the widespread clearance of forest in the Malay Archipelago.
Systematics History
Vangidae is part of Corvoidea. Within this superfamily, they are in a well-supported clade of mainly African and Asian species (Barker et al. 2004, Beresford et al. 2005, Fuchs et al. 2004, Fuchs et al. 2006c, Moyle et al. 2006b, Johansson et al. 2008a, Norman et al. 2009, Jønsson et al. 2011, Jønsson et al. 2012, Reddy et al. 2012, Aggerbeck et al. 2014), sometimes collec tively referred to as the superfamily Malaconotoidea (Cracraft 2014). Owing to their great morphological variation, many of the Malagasy vangas were previously thought to be allied to other families—including Sittidae, Pycnonotidae, Laniidae, Paridae, and Timaliidae—before phylogenetic studies identified them as members of Vangidae (Yamagishi et al. 2001, Mane gold 2008a, Fuchs et al. 2012, Jønsson et al. 2012, Reddy et al. 2012). Within the corvoid radiation, Vangidae may be sister to Platysteiridae (Fuchs et al. 2004, Fuchs et al. 2012, Jønsson et al. 2012, Reddy et al. 2012), to Malaconotidae (Jønsson et al. 2011), or to a clade made up of these two families together (Johansson et al. 2008a). The boundaries of Vangidae are controversial; traditionally it included only lineages endemic to Madagascar, but recent phylogenies (Barker et al. 2004, Jønsson et al. 2011, Fuchs et al. 2012, Jønsson et al. 2012, Reddy et al. 2012) show that the radiation from Madagascar is embedded within a group that also includes the helmet shrikes (traditional Prionopidae) of Africa and a clade of African and Southeast Asian species—the woodshrikes (Tephrodornis) and the shrike-flycatchers and flycatcher-shrikes (Hemipus, Bias, Megabyas). Within this group, relation ships are still not well resolved, with the vangas sometimes found as sister to the Asian genera, which are in turn sister to the helmetshrikes (Jønsson et al. 2011), or with the vangas sister to Philentoma, which are in turn closely related to the other groups (Fuchs et al. 2012, Jønsson et al. 2012). Given the uncertainty of relationships within this clade, it is necessary either to group them all together into an expanded Vangidae (as done here), or to recognize many new families for the nonMalagasy lineages. Regardless of this family-level classification, the Malagasy vanga radiation is monophyletic and represents a spectacular case of adaptive radiation.
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
70%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
10%
|
Vulnerable |
7.5%
|
Endangered |
12.5%
|
Critically Endangered |
0%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
0%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information