Southern Tchagra (Tchagra tchagra)

Cover image of Southern Tchagra by Attie van Aarde – Stilbaai, Western Cape

Tchagras belong to the Bushshrike family MALACONOTIDAE. Other members of this group include Boubous, Bushshrikes, Puffbacks, and Gonoleks. They are smallish passerine birds with robust bodies, strong legs and feet, and formidable shrike-like bills. Many are very colourful and most species are rather secretive. The majority occur in woodlands, but also in marshes, scrub and Afromontane or tropical forest. They were formerly classed with the true shrikes in the family Laniidae, but are now considered sufficiently distinctive to be separated from that group. The family is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa but is completely absent from Madagascar. The name Malaconotidae alludes to their fluffy back and rump feathers. The family comprises 50 species from 9 genera.

Identification

The Southern Tchagra

The sexes are alike. In adults, the crown is rufous-brown with an olive tinge. The supercilium is greyish in front of the eye and white behind. It is broad and long, almost extending onto the nape. The supercilium is bordered below by a bold, black eye stripe. The ear coverts and cheeks are pale greyish-brown, and the sides of the neck are also greyish-brown. The back is rich olive-brown with an olive-grey rump. The tail is blackish with white tips. The central pair of tail feathers are dark greyish-brown, with fine barring. On the under parts, the chin and throat are greyish white and the rest of the underparts are grey, tinged olive. The bill is black and the eyes are rich brown. The legs and feet are grey.

Juveniles resemble adults, but their upper parts are more olive tinged. The supercilium is buff-white and the tail tips are buff-coloured (not white).

The call of the Southern Tchagra is distinctive but could be confused with that of the Brown-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra australis). Visually, the two are also easily mistaken for one another. However, the latter is smaller and has a supercilium bordered above and below by black stripes and with a shorter, weaker bill. The ranges of the two species overlap marginally in KwaZulu-Natal. The Black-crowned Tchagra (Tchagra senegalus) has a black (not brown) crown and white (not grey) underparts.

Status and Distribution

The Southern Tchagra is common in the south of its range, but uncommon to rare in the north. It is endemic to South Africa and eSwatini (Swaziland). The Southern Tchagra occurs from the Mpumalanga escarpment south through western eSwatini to KwaZulu-Natal and west along the coastal plain to about Hermanus and Worcester in the Western Cape. It probably also extends marginally in southern Mozambique. It extends along river valleys up to 200 km inland, especially in the Karoo region of the Eastern Cape, although most records are from within 100km of the coast.

The Southern Tchagra is not threatened. There is some evidence of range expansion in the Western Cape since the 1980’s. The Southern Tchagra is likely to have benefited from the spread of alien scrub and thickets in some areas.

Habitat

The Southern Tchagra favours low, near-impenetrable thickets. It inhabits coastal bush and scrub, the edges and clearings of coastal dune forest, thorny, tangled thickets along rivers, brush piles fringing cultivation, and tangled fynbos. In more arid areas, the Southern Tchagra occurs in dense stands of thorn trees (Vachellia karoo) along river corridors. At the northern limit of its range, it occurs in bracken and scrub at the ecotone between montane grassland and forest.

Behaviour

The Southern Tchagra is resident and sedentary throughout its range. It is usually encountered singly or in pairs and is a secretive bird of dense cover. It is infrequently seen, even where reputed to be quite common and is far more likely to be heard. They sometimes sing from an exposed perch on top of a bush, but dives for cover at the slightest disturbance. The Southern Tchagra rarely spends time in the open except to fly low to the net thicket. Flights are usually short, with the tail spread and with rapid wing-beats interspersed with glides. It typically creeps into the densest vegetation when disturbed.

The Southern Tchagra forages close to or on the ground. It hops and runs about, turning over plant material, occasionally foraging in open grass, but never far from cover. Gleans prey from low branches and stems.

The Southern Tchagra eats arthropods and their larvae, including ants, termite alates, grasshoppers, small beetles, crickets, caterpillars, spiders, millipedes, and snails. It also consumes smaller quantities of berries, small fruits, and seeds.

The Southern Tchagra is a monogamous, solitary nester and is strongly territorial. Territorial interactions involve excited side-to-side movements, bowing, ‘wing-fripping’, tail-cocking and flicking. It may also enact a flight display over bushes during territorial defence. During courtship, the male postures excitedly, bowing his body with tail fanned and head stretched up.

Breeding has been recorded from August to December in the Western Cape and from October to December in KwaZulu-Natal. The nest is a shallow cup of fine plant stems, twigs and rootlets; lined with finer rootlets, sometimes with bits of hair. It is probably built by both sexes. It is usually placed in the fork of a dense shrub, about 1m above the ground. The nest is always well hidden. Old nests are sometimes re-used, with very little refurbishing. Pairs sometimes also build on the old nest of another species.

2 to 3 eggs are laid per clutch. They are white purple-grey and red-brown spots and scribbles. The incubation period lasts up to 1 days. Newly hatched young are altricial and brooded almost constantly for the first days or so. The nestling period takes a further 13 to 16 days and the young are fed by both parents. Broods of the Southern Tchagra are sometimes parasitised by the Jacobin Cuckoo (Clamator jacobinus).

Further Resources

Species text in the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP1), 1997.

The use of photographs by Alan Manson, Alex Briggs, Attie van Aarde, Johan Heyns, Johan van Rooyen, Lance Robinson, Pieter la Grange, and Roelof van der Breggen is acknowledged.

Other common names: Grysborstjagra (Afrikaans); Umnguphane (Xhosa); Tchagra du Cap (French); Kaapse Tsjagra (Dutch); Kaptschagra (German); Picanço-assobiador-austral (Portuguese).

A list of bird species in this format is available here.

Recommended citation format: Tippett RM 2025. Southern Tchagra Tchagra tchagra.  Biodiversity and Development Institute. Available online at https://thebdi.org/2026/08/05/southern-tchagra-tchagra-tchagra/

Bird identification, birding

 Bird identification, birding, South Africa, Southern Boubou