Lafresnaye's vanga (''Xenopirostris xenopirostris'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

vanga The family Vangidae (from ''vanga'', Malagasy for the hook-billed vanga, ''Vanga curvirostris'') comprises a group of often shrike-like medium-sized birds distributed from Asia to Africa, including the vangas of Madagascar to which the family ...

family Vangidae. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

and one of three species in the genus ''

Xenopirostris ''Xenopirostris'' is a genus of birds in the family Vangidae. They are all endemic to Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République d ...

''. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the south and south west of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It inhabits sub-arid thorn scrub, in the

Madagascar spiny forests The Madagascar spiny forests (also known as the Madagascar spiny thickets) is an ecoregion in the southwest of Madagascar. The vegetation type is found on poor substrates with low, erratic winter rainfall. The ecoregion contains an outstanding pr ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

, particularly areas with large amounts of dead wood, from sea level to . The species has a small range is not common within that range. It was uplisted from Least Concern to Near Threatened in 2022 as it is experiencing moderately rapid population decline owing to habitat degradation and loss within its range. The common name for the species is derived from the French ornithologist who described it,

Frédéric de Lafresnaye Baron Nöel Frédéric Armand André de Lafresnaye (24 July 1783 – 14 July 1861) was a French ornithologist and collector. Lafresnaye was born into an aristocratic family at Chateau de La Fresnaye in Falaise, Calvados, Falaise, Normandy. He ...

. The specific name notes the resemblance of the bill (''rostris'') to the genus ''

Xenops ''Xenops'' is a genus in the bird family Furnariidae, the ovenbirds. The genus comprises three species of xenops, all of which are found in Mexico, Central America and South America, particularly in tropical rain forests. They are small birds wi ...

''. Jobling, J. A. (2017). Key to Scientific Names in Ornithology. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.) (2017)
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive
Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from www.hbw.com). Lafresnaye's vanga is a medium-sized vanga, in length and weighing . The plumage is almost the same between males and females. The head of the male is black with a white crown, throat, breast and belly and grey wings and back. The female has more white in the head with only the crown being black. Juvenile birds resemble females, but with brown on the upperparts. The heavy bill is blueish grey, and the legs are grey-blue.Yamagishi, S. & Nakamura, M. (2017). Lafresnaye's Vanga (Xenopirostris xenopirostris). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from http://www.hbw.com/node/60559 on 2 March 2017). Lafresnaye's vanga feeds on insects such as beetles and cockroaches, worms and small reptiles. They carefully search fallen or otherwise dead branches and trees for prey, probing and gleaning from bark, inside crevices and off twigs. They usually forage alone or as a pair, although sometimes they form small flocks or join other foraging species. They are not thought to be migratory. Very little is known about the breeding biology of this species. It builds a simple cup nest of vegetable matter strengthened with spider web. Two reddish-white eggs with reddish-grey spots are laid and incubated by both species.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:vanga, Lafresnaye's Lafresnaye's vanga Lafresnaye's vanga Taxonomy articles created by Polbot