Madanga

Madanga
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Zosteropidae
Genus:	Madanga Rothschild & Hartert, 1923
Species:	M. ruficollis
Binomial name
Madanga ruficollis Rothschild & Hartert, 1923

The madanga or rufous-throated white-eye (Madanga ruficollis) is a species of bird in the Zosteropidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Madanga, with no close relatives, and is endemic to the moist, mountainous, subtropical and tropical forests of the Indonesian island Buru. The bird was initially described from four specimens collected in April 1922 from one area in the western part of the island, near the settlement Wa Fehat, at elevations between 820 m (2,690 ft) and 1,500 m (4,900 ft). These observations were reproduced on two birds in December 1995 at Wakeika, at elevation of 1,460 m (4,790 ft); changes in the bird's habitat at Wa Fehat were also noted in 1995. The bird was observed only in a few localities and neither its habitat area nor population are reliably known. The population is estimated at more than several hundred individuals, and the habitat at several hundreds km² from the available on Buru area above 1,200 meters (872 km²) and above 1,500 m (382 km²); the birds are believed to disperse over their habitat rather than form groups. Because the species are restricted to a single island and its habitat is threatened by logging and other human activities, it is listed as endangered by the IUCN since 1996^[2][3]

The madanga most likely eats small invertebrates recovered from bark and lichen. The bird has distinct coloration and body features which distinguish it from other Zosterops genera within the Zosteropidae family, namely lack of the characteristic white eye-ring; longer toes, wing and tail, and the pointed shape of the rectrices (part of the tail).^[3]

A 2015 DNA analysis indicates the species is actually a type of pipit rather than a white-eye.^[4]

References