Van Dam's Vanga Xenopirostris damii Scientific name definitions

23 cm. A medium-sized vanga with stout, laterally compressed bill. Male has black head  , contrasting white throat  and broad white collar, broken at rear; upperparts dark grey, somewhat darker on mantle; upperwing and tail dark grey, blackish or sooty-grey primaries, primary coverts and alula; chin, throat and underparts  white; iris blackish; bill and legs dark grey. Female has forehead and lores whitish to pale buff, cheek , chin and throat whitish, front and top of head, nape and back of neck black with blue sheen, upperparts brown-tinged, breast and belly sometimes tinged buff; rest of plumage and bare parts similar to those of male. Juvenile is like female, but generally somewhat paler, with brown markings on scapulars and upperparts, breast and belly pale brown.

Patchily in N & NW Madagascar (Analamera, Ankazomborona near Ambaro Bay (1 Woolaver, L., Nichols, R., Razafindrajao, F. and Hawkins, A.F.A. (2004). Sighting of Van Dam’s Vanga Xenopirostris damii (Schlegel, 1866) in mangroves in north-west Madagascar. Bull. Brit. Orn. Club 124(1): 69–71. Close ), and Bongolava and Ankarafantsika Plateaux).

Primary dry deciduous forest and immediately adjacent vegetation.

Invertebrates, including beetles (Coleoptera), cockroaches (Blattodea), other insects, worms (Oligochaeta); also small vertebrates, e.g. chameleons (Chamaeleonidae). Strips loose bark from tree trunks and branches, investigates clumps of dead leaves, removes epiphytes; sound made by falling debris often gives away the species' presence. Gleans items, and extracts prey from dead trunks and branches by probing. Usually alone or in pairs, and sometimes in family parties of 4–8 individuals; often joins other vangas, e.g. Schetba rufa, and occurs in mixed-species feeding flocks.

Calls include "tseeang" or "tseeeo" whistle  on falling scale, also a loud "whip", and quieter whistling or clucking notes as alarm or contact. Two individuals sometimes produce antiphonal duet.

Season Oct to at least Jan. Monogamous. Territorial. Nest  built by both sexes, cup-shaped, consists of dead leaves and covered with spider webs, usually 6·5–14·5 m above ground in fork of tree. Clutch 3–4 eggs, white with reddish-brown spots; incubation by both sexes, from first egg; chicks brooded and fed by both sexes. No other information.

ENDANGERED. Restricted range species: present in West Malagasy Dry Forests EBA. Locally fairly common. Has tiny global range, and in recent decades recorded at only two widely separated localities, Ankarafantsika National Park (in NW) and Analamerana Special Reserve (in N). Population thought to be relatively small; pairs occupy widely separated, non-contiguous home ranges of 5–8 ha, suggesting density of c. 4 pairs/km². Confined to undisturbed dry deciduous forest, a habitat which, at both sites, is under great pressure, especially from fire. Originally described from an area between its two current sites, but no further records from there; much apparently suitable habitat remains in this intervening area, but this has not been thoroughly surveyed. Nevertheless, this species' habitat is becoming reduced in extent and diminishing in quality; main causes are the clearing and burning of forest for subsistence cultivation, uncontrolled bushfires, commercial logging, and exploitation for charcoal and firewood. Although both of its known localities are officially protected areas, their long-term future is not secure.