From Opus

Alternative name: Blackcap Bush Shrike

T. m. anchietae
Photo by MikeB
North-central Angola

Tchagra minuta

Includes Anchieta's Tchagra

[edit] Identification

Length 15-19 cm. The bill is strong and hooked.

Adult male: Long tail, chestnut back and wings and creamy-buff underparts, and black cap.

Adult female: Similar to the male, but with a white supercilium.

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa

[edit] Taxonomy

The Marsh Tchagra is sometimes placed in the monotypic genus Antichromus or Bocagia.

Tchagra minutus has three subspecies:

• T. m. minutus

• Sierra Leone to southern Sudan, Ethiopia, western Kenya and north-western Tanzania
• Has a black 'V' marking on the mantle and scapulars

• T. m. reichenowi

• Eastern and southern Tanzania, southern Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique

• T. m. anchietae

• Southern Zaire to Angola, northern Zambia, south-western Tanzania and northern Malawi

T. m. reichenowi and T. m. anchietae are sometimes split as Anchieta's Tchagra; named after Portuguese explorer José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta by his zoologist compatriot José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage in 1869.

[edit] Habitat

Rank grassland, bracken and sedges and shrubs associated with wetlands.

[edit] Behaviour

Diet includes large insects; forages near the ground in dense cover; sometimes hawks insects.

[edit] Breeding

Probably monogamous; territorial. The nest is a bulky, but neat cup of plant material and spider web, usually in a bush within a metre of the ground. One to three eggs are laid.

[edit] External Links