diff --git a/tracking.el b/tracking.el
index 0985ca0..f0762a6 100644
--- a/tracking.el
+++ b/tracking.el
@@ -147,6 +147,17 @@ If set to nil, all buffers will be shown."
                  (integer :tag "Maximum"))
   :group 'tracking)
 
+(defface tracking-channel-face
+  nil
+  "The face used by circe-tracking to show channels with activity in modeline."
+  :group 'circe)
+
+(defface tracking-query-face
+  nil
+  "The face used by circe-tracking to show query buffers with activity in
+modeline."
+  :group 'circe)
+
 ;;; Internal variables
 (defvar tracking-buffers nil
   "The list of currently tracked buffers.")
@@ -361,7 +372,7 @@ only return that many entries, ending with '+n'."
         (while buffer-names
           (push `(:propertize
                   ,(car shortened-names)
-                  face ,(get-text-property 0 'face (car buffer-names))
+                  face ,(tracking-get-face (car buffer-names))
                   keymap ,(let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
                             (define-key map [mode-line down-mouse-1]
                               `(lambda ()
@@ -446,5 +457,19 @@ This returns STRING with the new face."
                  (propertize string 'face candidate))))
       string)))
 
+(defun tracking-get-face (buffer)
+  "Return face for a given buffer. If the buffer has already some face
+specified, use it. This covers channels where our name was mentioned. Otherwise
+decide whether the buffer is for a channel, query or else and use a face based
+on this"
+  (with-current-buffer buffer
+    (cond ((get-text-property 0 'face buffer)
+           (get-text-property 0 'face buffer))
+          ((eq major-mode 'circe-channel-mode)
+           'tracking-channel-face)
+          ((eq major-mode 'circe-query-mode)
+           'tracking-query-face)
+          (t nil))))
+
 (provide 'tracking)
 ;;; tracking.el ends here