Birds

From Mgias

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Madagascar's Unique Bird Families 2.1 The family MESITORNITHIDAE 2.2 The family BRACHYPTERACIIDAE 2.3 The family PHILEPITTIDAE 2.4 The family LEPTOSOMATIDAE 2.5 The family VANGIDAE

Introduction

Over the past few millenia several flora and fauna species have become extinct along with several bird species, because of the severe loss of forest habitat related to the high rate of population growth which has an impact to the environment. Among these are flightless elephant birds Aepyornis , weighing 500kg and measuring about 3 meters high. So, the country has a top conservation priority for birds especially as half of its avifauna is unique.

About 260 bird species have been recorded in Madagascar of which 204 species are resident and 120 species are found nowhere else in the world. So, although the island’s avifauna is low in number, about 53% of bird species, 24.6 % bird genera, 5 families and one sub-family are endemic. There is a further 25 breeding species (12.5%) endemic to the Malagasy Region that is the island of Madagascar as well as the Comoros, the Aldabra islands, and the Mascarene islands ( Mauritius, Reunion, Rodrigues)

Much of the island’s birdlife is related to African avian families. The vast majority of these resident species are dependent on the native forest and wetlands, but a few inhabit the grasslands. These are distributed through the natural habitats of the eastern evergreen rainforest, western dry deciduous forest, southern sub-arid thorny scrub, western grasslands and woodlands, wetlands (lakes, estuaries, mangroves and marshes) and coastal areas.

The country’s bird life has 3 families and one sub-family endemic to Madagascar and 2 families endemic to the Malagasy Region. All representatives of these families occur in forest dwelling.

Madagascar's Unique Bird Families

The family MESITORNITHIDAE

or Mesite has 3 representatives:

1. Brown mesite (rainforest).
2. White breasted mesite ( dry deciduous forest).
3. Sub-desert mesite ( spiny forest).

The family BRACHYPTERACIIDAE

or Ground roller has 4 species which occur in the evergreen rainforest and 1 in the sub-desert spiny forest.

1. Pitta-like ground roller ( rainforest).
2. Short-legged ground roller (rainforest).
3. Scally ground roller (Scally ground roller (Mantadia-Perinet rainforest) endemic bird family) (pictured right.
4. Long-tailed ground roller (spiny desert forest) (pictured left).

The family PHILEPITTIDAE

or Asities and Sunbird-asities featured by 4 species and divided in two genera PHILEPITTA ( Asities) and NEODREPANIS ( Sunbird-asities).

There are all forest species and sexually dimorphic, while the males have a colored caruncle over the eyes during the breeding period. Three of which inhabit the evergreen rainforest and one in the dry deciduous forest.

1. Velvet asity (rainforest).
2. Schlegel’s asity (dry deciduous forest).
3. Sunbird-asity (rainforest).
4. Yellow-bellied sunbird-asity ( rainforest).

The sub-family COUINAE or Coua (CUCULIDAE family) has 9 living species and one other species is considered extinct the Snail-eating coua. They are distributed in different types of vegetation whereas 3 species are strictly tree-dwelling and 7 other species are ground-dwelling. The Couas are characterised by their long tail and blue skin around their eyes.

The family LEPTOSOMATIDAE

or Cuckoo-roller (Leptosomus discolor), (pictured)is a mono-specific family endemic to the Malagasy Region. It’s characterised by sexual dimorphism while the males are metallic green with purple sheen and the females are brown. There are fourteen breeding raptor species endemic to the island including the world's rarest bird Madagascar fish eagle which is distributed in the western region near lakes, mangroves and estuaries.

The family VANGIDAE

or Vanga is endemic to the Malagasy region with 14 species, 13 species of which are endemic to Madagascar and only one species is found in the Comoros. The Vangas occur in all Madagascar’s forest types, and they are generally bicolour(black and white), and have astonishing bill shapes with the size being adapted to their particular diet. . The bill shapes are different from one species to one another, for instance the Sickle-billed vanga has a fascinating long and curved bill adapted to peel and hollow the dead tree bark to search for insect-larvae, insects and lizards.