Velvet asity

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Philepitta castanea 3629655 (cropped).jpg

| image2 = Velvet Asity (Philepitta castanea) female ... (44121549365).jpg

| image_caption = Male

| image2_caption = Female

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Philepitta castanea |volume=2018 |page=e.T22698763A130195996 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22698763A130195996.en |access-date=12 November 2021}}

| genus = Philepitta

| species = castanea

| authority = (Müller, 1776)

| synonyms =

}}

The velvet asity (Philepitta castanea) is a species of bird in the family Philepittidae. It is endemic to Madagascar.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests .

Male P. castanea have yellow tips to its feathers when newly molted, but these wear off, leaving the bird all black; at the same time, a green wattle grows above the eye. The female is greenish.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/animal/asity#ref129199|title=asity {{!}} bird|access-date=2016-08-04}}

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Velvet asities eat berries and other fruit in undergrowth, including gastonia duplicata.Bashaw, Thaddeus. "The Role of Frugivorous Birds as Seed Dispersers: Feeding Selection and Preference of Madagascar’s Avian Frugivores in Analamazaotra Forest." (2022). They build hanging nests with a little roof over the entrance. They tend to be sedentary.{{Cite journal |last=Barbon |first=Hannah |last2=Berthoud |first2=Jean-Louis |last3=Woog |first3=Friederike |last4=Musa |first4=Sandrine |date=2023-11-10 |title=Haemosporidian parasite infections of Malagasy Philepittidae and Nectariniidae are driven by phylogeny rather than ecology |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0031182023001075 |journal=Parasitology |volume=150 |issue=14 |pages=1316–1329 |doi=10.1017/s0031182023001075 |issn=0031-1820|pmc=10941219 }}