Black-crowned tchagra

black-crowned tchagra, tchagra à tête noire, chagra del senegal
Names and conservation status
black-crowned tchagra, tchagra à tête noire, chagra del senegal
Tsavo West National Park
black-crowned tchagra, tchagra à tête noire, chagra del senegal
Tsavo West National Park

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 and most of Africa in scrub, open woodland, semi-desert and cultivation.

Black-crowned tchagra lays two or three heavily marked white eggs 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 insects and other small prey from a perch in a bush, although it sits less conspicuously than true shrikes.