home   about   search

biodiversity explorer

the web of life in southern Africa

Antichromus anchietae (Anchieta's tchagra, Marsh tchagra) 

[= Tchagra minuta

Vleitjagra [Afrikaans]; Kleine tsjagra, Moerastsjagra [Dutch]; Tchagra d'Anchieta [French]; Sumpftschagra [German]; Picanço-assobiador-dos-pântanos [Portuguese]

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class: Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial vertebrates) > Tetrapoda (four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota > Reptilia (reptiles) > Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria > Dinosauria (dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) > Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves (birds) > Order: Passeriformes > Family: Malaconotidae

Antichromus anchietae (Anchieta's tchagra, Marsh tchagra)  Antichromus anchietae (Anchieta's tchagra, Marsh tchagra) 
Anchieta's tchagra male. [photo Johann Grobbelaar ©] Anchieta's tchagra female. [photo Johann Grobbelaar ©]

Distribution and habitat

It has small populations scattered across sub-Saharan Africa, from Angola and the DRC through to southern Africa. In this region, it only occurs in a few localities of north-Central Mozambique, extending marginally into Zimbabwe. It generally prefers humid areas with tall grasses and scattered bushes, also occurring in reeds or papyrus on the border of streams or swamps.

Distribution of Anchieta's tchagra in southern Africa, based on statistical smoothing of the records from first SA Bird Atlas Project (© Animal Demography unit, University of Cape Town; smoothing by Birgit Erni and Francesca Little). Colours range from dark blue (most common) through to yellow (least common).

Food 

Its diet is exclusively made of mostly large insects, especially grasshoppers, doing most of its foraging in tall grasses or reedbeds, occasionally flying to the ground to pick up a prey item.

Breeding

  • The nest (see image below) is a sturdily-built deep cup, built of thin twigs and rootlets bound together with spider web strands, usually lined with moss, plant detritus and sometimes feathers. It is normally placed in the fork of a bush's branch, often less then 1 metre above ground.
Antichromus anchietae (Anchieta's tchagra, Marsh tchagra) 

Anchieta's tchagra male at its nest. [photo Johann Grobbelaar ©]

  • It lays 1-3 eggs, which are incubated by both sexes for an unknown period.

Threats

Not threatened.

References

  • Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts - Birds of southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.