Rufous vanga

The rufous vanga (Schetba rufa) is a species of bird in the family Vangidae. It is monotypic within the genus Schetba.^[2] It is endemic to Madagascar, where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.^[1]

Rufous vanga
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Vangidae
Genus:	Schetba Lesson, 1831
Species:	S. rufa
Binomial name
Schetba rufa (Linnaeus, 1766)
Synonyms
Lanius rufus Linnaeus, 1766

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the rufous vanga in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name La pie-griesche rousse de Madagascar and the Latin Lanius Madagascariensis rufus.^[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.^[4] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.^[4] One of these was the rufous vanga. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius rufus and cited Brisson's work.^[5] The rufous vanga is now the only species placed in the genus Schetba that was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831.^[6]

Two subspecies are recognised:^[7]

• S. r. rufa (Linnaeus, 1766) – north and east Madagascar
• S. r. occidentalis Delacour, 1931 – west Madagascar