Other Scientific Names
Tchagra minuta [BirdLife International (2004)], Tchagra minuta [Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993)], Antichromus minuta, Bocagia minuta
Other Names (World)
Marsh Tchagra, Blackcap Bush-shrike, Black-capped Shrike, Black-capped Bush-shrike, Blackcap Tchagra, Blackcapped Tchagra, Little Blackcap Tchagra, Lesser Tchagra, Lesser Shrike, Lesser Bush-shrike, Little Tchagra, Little Shrike, Little Bush-shrike, Anchieta's Tchagra, Southern Blackcap (anchietae, reichenowi and remotus)
Marsh Tchagra (Bocagia minuta) [XC718894]
by Antonio Xeira from Atewa Farmbush, Sagyimase, Ghana (call)
Marsh Tchagra (Bocagia minuta) [XC749583]
by Peter Boesman from Coagri, Quinh\u00e1mel, Biombo, Guinea-Bissau (song)
Subspecies
Marsh Tchagra (Bocagia minuta) and Anchieta's Tchagra (Tchagra anchietae) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) have been lumped into Tchagra minutus following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993). Gender agreement of Tchagra minutus follows David and Gosselin (2002b).
Somewhat aberrant species, sometimes treated in a monotypic genus Antichromus or Bocagia. Differences from congeners moderately notable genetically, but morphologically and biologically no greater than differences among species within other malaconotid genera. Nominate sometimes separated from other subspecies as a distinct species. Subspecies anchietae, reichenowi and remotus intergrade where they meet. Whether nominate and anchietae also do so is not known.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
minutus (Hartlaub, 1858) - Sierra Leone east discontinuously to lower R Congo, northern and eastern DRCongo (south to north-western shores of L Tanganyika), southern and eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, western Kenya and north-western Tanzania.
anchietae (Barboza du Bocage, 1869) - Angola, southern and south-eastern DRCongo, northern Zambia, south-western Tanzania and northern and western Malawi. Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Anchieta's Tchagra (Tchagra anchietae).
reichenowi (Neumann, 1900) - Eastern, central and southern Tanzania (coastal lowlands south to R Rufiji, and inland in southern Dodoma, Morogoro, Iringa and Songea).
remotus Clancey, 1959 - South-eastern Malawi, northern and western Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet