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==Habitat== | ==Habitat== | ||
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==Behaviour== | ==Behaviour== | ||
Revision as of 17:12, 18 June 2009
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
Rank grassland, bracken and sedges and shrubs associated with wetlands.
Behaviour
Diet includes large insects taken from a low perch in a bush.
