The Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone mutata) is a species of bird in the Monarchidae family. It is found in Comoros, Madagascar, and Mayotte. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.
When Carl Linnaeus first described the Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher in 1766, he assigned it to the genus Muscicapa, which contained many of the Old World flycatchers. The species remained in that genus until 1827, when Constantin Wilhelm Lambert Gloger created the genus Terpsiphone for the paradise-flycatchers. The genus name Terpsiphone comes from the Greek words terpsi, meaning “delighted in” (from terpo, “to delight”) and phone, meaning “voice”. Thespecies name, mutata is Latin for “changed” or “different”.
The Malagasy Paradise Flycatcher is thought to have evolved from African ancestors, as it appears to be more closely related to the African Paradise Flycatcher than the Asian Paradise Flycatcher. There are six recognized subspecies, which differ only slightly in appearance.
- T. m. singetra, described by Finn Salomonsen in 1933, is found in northern, western and southern Madagascar.
- T. m. mutata, described by Linnaeus in 1766, is found in the east and on the High Plateau of Madagascar.
- T. m. comorensis (sometimes misspelled comoroensis), described by Alphonse Milne-Edwards and Émile Oustalet in 1885, is found on Grand Comoro.
- T. m. voeltzkowiana, described by Gustav Stresemann in 1924, is found on Mohéli.
- T. m. vulpina, described by Edward Newton in 1877, is found on Anjouan.
- T. n. pretiosa, described by René Primevère Lesson in 1847, is found on Mayotte.