Alternative name: Blackcap Bush Shrike"
- Tchagra minuta
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.
Distribution
Sub-Saharan Africa
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.
Habitat
Scrub, open woodland, semi-desert and cultivation.
Behaviour
Diet includes large insects taken from a low perch in a bush.