Southern Tchagra juv.

Description:

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. An identification pitfall is that juvenile Black-crowned Tchagra has a brown crown. It can be separated from Southern Tchagra by its larger size, relatively shorter bill and paler underparts.

Habitat:

Dense Scrub

Notes:

The male Southern Tchagra has a descending whistling song, ttttrtr te te te teuuu given in its display flight or from a perch. The female responds with a trilled tzerrrrrrrr