Long-billed Bernieria

About the Long-billed Bernieria

The long-billed bernieria (Bernieria madagascariensis), formerly known as long-billed greenbul and sometimes as common tetraka or long-billed tetraka, is a songbird species endemic to Madagascar. It is the only species placed in the genus Bernieria. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description and an illustration of the long-billed bernieria in the third volume of his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected on the island of Madagascar. He used the French name Le grand figuier de Madagascar and the Latin name Ficedula Madagascariensis Major. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1789 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae he included the long-billed bernieria based on Brisson's description. He placed it with the flycatchers in the genus Muscicapa and coined the binomial name Muscicapa madagascariensis. The long-billed bernieria is now the only species placed in the genus Bernieria... Wikipedia →