Tchagra senegalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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.
In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the black-crowned tchagra in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name La pie-griesche gris du Sénégal and the Latin Lanius Senegalensis cinereus. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the black-crowned tchagra. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Lanius senegalus and cited Brisson's work. The species is now placed in the genus Tchagra that was introduced by the French naturalist René Lesson in 1831. Nine... Wikipedia →
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-crowned Tchagra sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 31 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 139th most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–March, August–September and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-crowned Tchagra in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and December, the lowest months. May–July and October have too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-crowned Tchagra sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
20th of 40
Of the 40 parks where we can rate Black-crowned Tchagra sightings, Niokolo-Koba National Park ranks 20th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 40%), Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (South Africa, about 40%) and uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Malaconotidae
The closest relatives of the Black-crowned Tchagra that you can see in Niokolo-Koba National Park (family Malaconotidae, Bushshrikes and Allies) are Yellow-crowned Gonolek (about 70%), Northern Puffback (about 30%) and Gray-headed Bushshrike (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-crowned Tchagra is recorded against all the birds logged in Niokolo-Koba National Park (31 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.
