Tchagra tchagra
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The southern tchagra (Tchagra tchagra) is a passerine bird found in dense scrub and coastal bush in southern and south-eastern South Africa and Eswatini. 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.
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. There are three fairly similar subspecies of southern tchagra. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Tchagra sighting in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 216 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 35th most-seen of the 189 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to January
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Southern Tchagra in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, against about 30% in February–March and July, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Southern Tchagra sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Southern Tchagra sightings, De Hoop Nature Reserve has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come Addo Elephant National Park (South Africa, about 20%) and Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, under 5%).
Same family: Malaconotidae
The closest relatives of the Southern Tchagra that you can see in De Hoop Nature Reserve (family Malaconotidae, Bushshrikes and Allies) are Bokmakierie (about 70%) and Southern Boubou (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Southern Tchagra is recorded against all the birds logged in De Hoop Nature Reserve (216 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
