Bernier's Vanga Oriolia bernieri Scientific name definitions

23 cm; 52–59 g. A medium-sized, dark-plumaged vanga with stout conical bill. Male  has entire plumage black  with blue sheen; iris greyish white; bill  and legs light grey. Female is dark tan-rufous, brighter on wing, almost all feathers with fine black bars (most conspicuous on upperparts and breast  ); upperwing with uniformly rufous primaries, basal part of primaries often brighter rufous; underwing rufous, underwing-coverts finely black-barred; bare parts as for male. Juvenile is similar to female.

NE Madagascar (Marojejy National Park S to about R Rianala).

Lowland evergreen humid forest  , to c. 1000 m.

Probably sedentary.

Invertebrates, including spiders (Araneae), crickets (Orthoptera), cockroaches (Blattodea); also small vertebrates, e.g. geckos (of genus Phelsuma). Forages at all levels of vegetation, mainly high in trees. Feeding techniques include gleaning and probing; probing involve poking and winkling, as practised by woodpeckers (Picidae). Regularly strips moss and bark from trees, and able to cling to almost vertical trunks in woodpecker fashion. Closely investigates leaves of pandanus (Pandanus), traveller’s tree (Ravenala madagascariensis) and palms; tosses clumps of debris from bases of leaves. Found in isolated pairs, also in mixed-species flocks made up principally of vangas.

Poorly known. Loud “chew”  , like that of Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia), and harsh chattering series; in flight, wingbeats produce loud whirring sound.

Season Sept–Dec (Masoala Peninsula). Breeding system uncertain; sometimes in groups consisting of one female and several males, all of which copulate with female; at one of four nests studied, an immature male copulated with female and also assisted with nest-building and, to minor extent, with incubation of eggs. Nest built by both sexes, mostly by female, cup-shaped, consisting of root material, palm fibres, dry leaves and moss, placed usually 10·8–14·4 m above ground inside palm-leaf whorl. Clutch 3 eggs, pinkish-white and mottled with carmine-red, especially at larger end; incubation by both sexes, period c. 17 days; both brood and feed chicks, nestling period c. 17 days.

ENDANGERED. Restricted-range species: present in East Malagasy Wet Forests EBA. Confined to N half of E rainforest, where rather scarce and patchily distributed. Recorded at many sites from Marojejy S to Zahamena; an unconfirmed report from much farther S, in Vondrozo (in S Fianarantsoa). Considered at risk because of continuing rapid loss and degradation of already severely fragmented forest habitat, leading to population decrease. Primary lowland rainforest threatened mainly by slash-and-burn cultivation; much of E coastal plain already cleared, and many of remaining tracts of forest highly degraded. Surviving areas of forest under pressure from increasing human population, and in some areas commercial logging. If current trends continue, virtually all remaining forest, especially that at lower elevations, will very likely have disappeared within a few decades. Occurs in several protected areas, i.e. in Marojejy, Masoala and Zahamena National Parks, in Ambatovaky, Anjanaharibe-South and Mangerivola Special Reserves, in Betampona Strict Reserve, and in Anjanaharibe, Bezavona and Haute Rantabe Classified Forests. Effective protection of national parks of particular importance, as these still contain significant areas of good-quality habitat.