The tchagras are passerine birds in the

bushshrike The bushshrikes are smallish passerine birds. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group as the family Malaconotidae, a name that allud ...

family, which are closely related to the true

shrike Shrikes () are passerine birds of the family Laniidae. The family is composed of 34 species in four genera. The family name, and that of the largest genus, ''Lanius'', is derived from the Latin word for "butcher", and some shrikes are also know ...

s in the family Laniidae, and were once included in that group.

Description

These are long-tailed birds, typically with a grey or grey-brown back, brown wings and grey and whitish underparts. The head pattern is distinctive, with a dark cap and black eyestripe separated by a white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also ...

. The bill is strong and hooked. The male and female are similar in plumage in all tchagra species, but distinguishable from immature birds. These are solitary birds which tend to skulk low down or on the ground. They have distinctive whistled calls and can be readily tempted into sight by imitating the call, presumably because the tchagra is concerned that there is an intruder in its territory. These are species typically of scrub, open woodland, semi-desert and cultivation in sub-

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

n Africa. They hunt large insects from a low perch in a bush, and the larger species like

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

will also take vertebrate prey such as frogs and snakes.

Extant Species

The genus ''Tchagra'' was introduced by the French naturalist

René Lesson René-Primevère Lesson (20 March 1794 – 28 April 1849) was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist. Biography Lesson was born at Rochefort, and entered the Naval Medical School in Rochefort at the age of sixteen. He ...

in 1831 with the southern tchagra as the type species. The genus contains four species: The

marsh tchagra The marsh tchagra or blackcap bush-shrike (''Bocagia minuta'') is a species of passerine bird placed in the monotypic genus ''Bocagia'' in the family Malaconotidae. It is native to marshes in the tropics and subtropics of Africa. It is sometimes ...

''Bocagia minuta'' is sometimes placed in the genus. The dark Angolan subspecies of marsh tchagra was formerly sometimes split as Anchieta's tchagra, ''Tchagra anchietae'', named after Portuguese explorer José Alberto de Oliveira Anchieta by his zoologist compatriot

José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (2 May 1823 – 3 November 1907) was a Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museu Nacional de Lisboa in Lisbon. He published numerous works on mammals, birds, and fishes. In t ...

in 1869.

References

* Barlow, Wacher and Disley, ''Birds of The Gambia'' * Tony Harris and Kim Franklin, ''Shrikes and Bush-Shrikes'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q2047849 Bird genera Taxa named by René Lesson