Southern Tchagra

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Southern Tchagra (Tchagra tchagra) is a passerine bird found in dense scrub and coastal bush in southern and south-eastern South Africa and Swaziland. This species is a bushshrike, a group closely related to the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, and formerly included in that family. The Southern Tchagra is 17-21 cm in length. It has a brown crown and black 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 longish bill is black. The sexes are similar, but young birds are duller and have a buff stripe through the eye. This species is similar to the Black-crowned Tchagra, but that species is larger, and the adult, as its name implies, has a black rather than brown crown.