Whilst birding the bottom of the
Raydah Escarpment in late March I came across a Black-crowned Tchagra. This was
a new species for me in Saudi Arabia and one I was surprised I had not seen
before. The bird was at the bottom of the Raydah Escarpment an area known to
attract several African species and the bird was in relatively dense cover for
most of the time. There are a number of subspecies of Black-crowned Tchagra
with the one occurring in southwest Saudi Arabia, west and east Yemen and
southern Oman T. s. percivali. This subspecies is distinctive, and has
its upperparts and underparts uniform dark grey, but chin and throat white. It
differs from all other races in lacking any vestige of black or rufous on the
scapulars and in having central tail feathers black (not grey-brown) a white
supercilium and unpatterened tertials. The species is mainly an African one
with the birds in Arabia the only subspecies occurring outside of the African
continent. They are an uncommon bird seen only in the southwest of the Kingdom.
