The black-crowned tchagra (''Tchagra senegalus'') is a bushshrike. This family of

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds is closely related to the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, and was once included in that group. This species is found in the Arabian peninsula and most of Africa in scrub, open woodland, semi-desert and cultivation.

Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

included a description of the black-crowned tchagra in his based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name and the Latin . The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

updated his '' Systema Naturae'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the black-crowned tchagra. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name ''Lanius senegalus'' and cited Brisson's work. The species is now placed in the genus ''

Tchagra The tchagras are passerine birds in the bushshrike family, which are closely related to the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, and were once included in that group. Description These are long-tailed birds, typically with a grey or grey-brown ...

'' that was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. Nine subspecies are recognised.

Description

left, Adults have a solid black crown, bordered by buff superciliary stripes, but juveniles have a brownish crown. The black-crowned tchagra is a colourful and unmistakable species, 19–22 cm in length. It has a black crown and eye stripes separated by a broad white supercilium. The underparts are pale grey and the upperparts pale brown. The folded wings are chestnut and the tail is black, tipped white. The bill is black. Sexes are similar, but young birds have a brown cap and a pale yellow bill. There are 14 subspecies, varying in size and the colour of the back, underparts and eyestripe. Black-crowned tchagra has a descending whistling song, , and can be readily tempted into sight by imitating this call, presumably because the bird is concerned that there is an intruder in its territory. The male also has a switchback display flight.

Behaviour

Black-crowned tchagra lays two or three heavily marked white

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s in a cup nest in a tree or bush. Both sexes, but mainly the female, incubate for 12–15 days to hatching; the chicks fledge after another 15 days. It is similar in habits to the shrikes, hunting

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s and other small prey from a perch in a bush, although it sits less conspicuously than true shrikes.

References

* Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ''Birds of The Gambia'', * Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, ''SASOL Birds of Southern Africa'', * Tony Harris and Kim Franklin, ''Shrikes & Bush Shrikes'' (Christopher Helm, 2000)

External links

* Black-crowned tchagra
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds

Black-crowned tchagra videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1317767 black-crowned tchagra Birds of Africa Birds of the Middle East black-crowned tchagra black-crowned tchagra