The hook-billed vanga (''Vanga curvirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Vangidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. Its natural habitats are

subtropical or tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally found in large, discont ...

, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the hook-billed vanga in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name ''L'écorcheur de Madagascar'' and the Latin ''Collurio Madagascariensis''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the

binomial system The binomial system ( es, Sistema binominal) is a voting system that was used in the legislative elections of Chile between 1989 and 2013. From an electoral system point of view, the binomial system is in effect the D'Hondt method with an ope ...

and are not recognised by the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the hook-billed vanga. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Lanius curvirostris'' and cited Brisson's work. It is now the only species placed in the genus ''Vanga'' that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816. The genus name ''Vanga'' is the Malagasy name for the species. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''curvirostris'' is from Latin ''curvus'' "curved" and ''-rostrum'' "billed". Two

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

are recognised: * ''V. c. curvirostris'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – west, north, east Madagascar * ''V. c. cetera'' Bangs, 1928 – south Madagascar A 2018 study on avian skull evolution has concluded that the ancestral neornithe had a beak most similar to this species. This suggests a similar ancestral ecological niche for modern birds.

References

hook-billed vanga Endemic birds of Madagascar hook-billed vanga Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Vangidae-stub