Turaco
Encyclopedia
The turacos make up the bird
family Musophagidae (literally "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain
-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as louries. They are semi-zygodactylous
- the fourth (outer) toe can be switched back and forth. The second and third toes, which always point forward, are conjoined in some species. Musophagids often have prominent crests and long tails; the turacos are noted for peculiar and unique pigment
s giving them their bright green and red feathers.
Traditionally, this group has been allied with the cuckoo
s in the order
Cuculiformes
, but the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy
raises this group to a full order Musophagiformes. They have been proposed to link
the Hoatzin
to the other living birds but this was later disputed.
Musophagids are medium-sized arboreal birds endemic
to sub-Saharan Africa
, where they live in forests, woodland
and savanna
. Their flight is weak, but they run quickly through the tree canopy. They feed mostly on fruits and to a lesser extent on leaves, buds, and flower
s, occasionally taking small insect
s, snail
s, and slug
s. Contrary to what the names might suggest, they generally do not eat bananas or plantains and indeed wild-living musophagids do not seem to use Musa
as food at all.
They are gregarious birds that do not migrate. Many species are noisy, with the go-away-birds being especially noted for their piercing alarm call
s, which alert other fauna
to the presence of predators or hunters; their common name refers to this. Musophagids build large stick nests in trees, and lay 2 or 3 egg
s. The young are born with thick down and open, or nearly-open, eyes.
, the only true green pigment
in birds known to date. Other "greens" in bird colors result from a yellow pigment such as some carotenoid
, combined with the prismatic physical structure of the feather itself which scatters the light in a particular way and giving a blue color. Turaco wings contain the red pigment turacin
, unlike in other birds where red color is due to carotenoids. Both pigments are derived from porphyrin
s and only known from the Musophagidae at present, but especially the little-researched turacoverdin might have relatives in other birds.
genus Veflintornis is known from the Middle Miocene
of Grive-Saint-Alban (France
). It was established as Apopempsis by Pierce Brodkorb
in 1971, but this is preoccupied by Schenkling's 1903 use of the name for some beetle
s. "Apopempsis" africanus (Early Miocene of Kenya) might also belong there.
Further fossil material of putative musophagids was found in Egypt
as well as in Late Oligocene deposits at Gaimersheim
(Germany
) and Middle Miocene deposits at Grive-Saint-Alban and Vieux-Collonges (both France). While it is not entirely certain that these fossils indeed are of turacos, it nonetheless appears as if the family evolve
d in the Oligocene
of central Europe
or perhaps northern Africa, and later on shifted its distribution southwards. The climate
of those European regions during the late Paleogene
was not too dissimilar to that of (sub)tropical Africa today; the Sahara
n desert was not yet present and the distance across the Mediterranean was not much more than what it is today. Thus such a move south may well have been a very slow and gradual shifting of a large and continuous range.
The Early Eocene Promusophaga was initially believed to be the oldest record of the turacos; it was eventually reconsidered a distant relative of the ostrich
and is now in the ratite
family Lithornithidae
. Filholornis from the Late Eocene or Early Oligocene of France is occasionally considered a musophagid, but its relationships have always been disputed. It is not often considered a turaco anymore in more recent times and has been synonymized with the presumed gruiform
Talantatos, though it is not certain whether this will become widely accepted.
FAMILY MUSOPHAGIDAE Genus Ruwenzorornis
Genus Musophaga
- blue turacos
Ross's Turaco
, Musophaga rossae
Genus Corythaixoides - go-away-birds
Genus Crinifer
- plantain-eaters
Eastern Plantain-eater, Crinifer zonurus
Genus Corythaeola
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
family Musophagidae (literally "banana-eaters"), which includes plantain
Plantain
Plantain is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa. The fruit they produce is generally used for cooking, in contrast to the soft, sweet banana...
-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as louries. They are semi-zygodactylous
Dactyly
In biology, dactyly is the arrangement of digits on the hands, feet, or sometimes wings of a tetrapod animal. It comes from the Greek word δακτυλος = "finger".Sometimes the ending "-dactylia" is used...
- the fourth (outer) toe can be switched back and forth. The second and third toes, which always point forward, are conjoined in some species. Musophagids often have prominent crests and long tails; the turacos are noted for peculiar and unique pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
s giving them their bright green and red feathers.
Traditionally, this group has been allied with the cuckoo
Cuckoo
The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos . Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute...
s in the order
Order (biology)
In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...
Cuculiformes
Cuculiformes
The near passerine bird order Cuculiformes traditionally included three families as below:* Musophagidae - turacos and allies* Cuculidae - cuckoos, coucals, roadrunners and anis* Opisthocomidae - Hoatzin...
, but the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy
Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy
The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s....
raises this group to a full order Musophagiformes. They have been proposed to link
Missing Link
Missing link is a nonscientific term for any transitional fossil, especially one connected with human evolution; see Transitional fossil - Missing links and List of transitonal fossils - Human evolution.Missing Link may refer to:...
the Hoatzin
Hoatzin
The Hoatzin , also known as the Hoactzin, Stinkbird, or Canje Pheasant, is a species of tropical bird found in swamps, riverine forest and mangrove of the Amazon and the Orinoco delta in South America...
to the other living birds but this was later disputed.
Ecology and behavior
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to sub-Saharan Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, where they live in forests, woodland
Woodland
Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...
and savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
. Their flight is weak, but they run quickly through the tree canopy. They feed mostly on fruits and to a lesser extent on leaves, buds, and flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s, occasionally taking small insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, and slug
Slug
Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...
s. Contrary to what the names might suggest, they generally do not eat bananas or plantains and indeed wild-living musophagids do not seem to use Musa
Musa (genus)
Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae; it includes bananas and plantains. There are over 50 species of Musa with a broad variety of uses....
as food at all.
They are gregarious birds that do not migrate. Many species are noisy, with the go-away-birds being especially noted for their piercing alarm call
Alarm call
In the field of animal communication, an alarm signal is an antipredator adaptation referring to various signals emitted by social animals in response to danger. Many primates and birds have elaborate alarm calls for warning conspecifics of approaching predators. For example, the characteristic...
s, which alert other fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
to the presence of predators or hunters; their common name refers to this. Musophagids build large stick nests in trees, and lay 2 or 3 egg
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
s. The young are born with thick down and open, or nearly-open, eyes.
Coloration
The Go-away-birds and plantain-eaters are mainly grey and white. The turacos on the other hand are brightly coloured birds, usually blue, green or purple. The green color in turacos comes from turacoverdinTuracoverdin
Turacoverdin is a unique copper uroporphyrin pigment responsible for the bright green coloration of several birds of the family Musophagidae, most notably the turaco. It is chemically related to turacin, a red pigment also found almost exclusively in turacos...
, the only true green pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
in birds known to date. Other "greens" in bird colors result from a yellow pigment such as some carotenoid
Carotenoid
Carotenoids are tetraterpenoid organic pigments that are naturally occurring in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae, some bacteria, and some types of fungus. Carotenoids can be synthesized fats and other basic organic metabolic building...
, combined with the prismatic physical structure of the feather itself which scatters the light in a particular way and giving a blue color. Turaco wings contain the red pigment turacin
Turacin
Turacin is a naturally occurring red pigment that is 6% copper complexed to uroporphyrin 111. Arthur Herbert Church discovered turacin in 1869.It is found only in the bird family Musophagidae, the turacos...
, unlike in other birds where red color is due to carotenoids. Both pigments are derived from porphyrin
Porphyrin
Porphyrins are a group of organic compounds, many naturally occurring. One of the best-known porphyrins is heme, the pigment in red blood cells; heme is a cofactor of the protein hemoglobin. Porphyrins are heterocyclic macrocycles composed of four modified pyrrole subunits interconnected at...
s and only known from the Musophagidae at present, but especially the little-researched turacoverdin might have relatives in other birds.
Evolution and systematics
The fossilFossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
genus Veflintornis is known from the Middle Miocene
Middle Miocene
The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene....
of Grive-Saint-Alban (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
). It was established as Apopempsis by Pierce Brodkorb
Pierce Brodkorb
Pierce Brodkorb , also stated as William Pierce Brodkorb, was an American ornithologist and paleontologist....
in 1971, but this is preoccupied by Schenkling's 1903 use of the name for some beetle
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
s. "Apopempsis" africanus (Early Miocene of Kenya) might also belong there.
Further fossil material of putative musophagids was found in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as well as in Late Oligocene deposits at Gaimersheim
Gaimersheim
Gaimersheim is a municipality in the district of Eichstätt, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 7 km northwest of Ingolstadt....
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) and Middle Miocene deposits at Grive-Saint-Alban and Vieux-Collonges (both France). While it is not entirely certain that these fossils indeed are of turacos, it nonetheless appears as if the family evolve
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
d in the Oligocene
Oligocene
The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 34 million to 23 million years before the present . As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
of central Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
or perhaps northern Africa, and later on shifted its distribution southwards. The climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
of those European regions during the late Paleogene
Paleogene
The Paleogene is a geologic period and system that began 65.5 ± 0.3 and ended 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and comprises the first part of the Cenozoic Era...
was not too dissimilar to that of (sub)tropical Africa today; the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n desert was not yet present and the distance across the Mediterranean was not much more than what it is today. Thus such a move south may well have been a very slow and gradual shifting of a large and continuous range.
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
and is now in the ratite
Ratite
A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum—hence the name from the Latin ratis...
family Lithornithidae
Lithornithidae
Lithornithidae are a family of palaeognathous birds from the early Tertiary of the northern hemisphere.-Species:The family was erected by Peter Houde in 1988. It includes the genera Lithornis, Paracathartes, and Pseudocrypturus...
. Filholornis from the Late Eocene or Early Oligocene of France is occasionally considered a musophagid, but its relationships have always been disputed. It is not often considered a turaco anymore in more recent times and has been synonymized with the presumed gruiform
Gruiformes
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like"....
Talantatos, though it is not certain whether this will become widely accepted.
Species
The living species of Musophagidae, arranged in taxonomic sequence, are:FAMILY MUSOPHAGIDAE
- Genus TauracoTauracoTauraco is a genus of turacos. It contains the "typical" or green turacos; though their plumage is not always green all over, the presence of significant amounts of turacoverdin-colored plumage generally sets Turaco species apart from other Musophagidae...
- green turacos- Guinea Turaco,
- Livingstone's TuracoLivingstone's TuracoThe Livingstone's Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family, which was named for Charles Livingstone, the brother of David Livingstone.It is distributed through the subtropical lowlands of southeastern Africa....
, Tauraco livingstonii - Schalow's TuracoSchalow's TuracoThe Schalow's Turaco is a frugivorous bird in the Musophagidae family. It is named after Herman Schalow. Mature birds have, on average, the longest crests of any turaco species....
, Tauraco schalowi - Knysna TuracoKnysna TuracoThe Knysna Turaco , or, in South Africa, Knysna Lourie, is a large turaco, one of a group of African near-passerine birds. It is a resident breeder in the mature evergreen forests of southern and eastern South Africa, and Swaziland. It was formerly sometimes considered to be a subspecies of the...
, Tauraco corythaix - Black-billed TuracoBlack-billed TuracoThe Black-billed Turaco, Tauraco schuetti, is a medium sized turaco, an endemic family to sub-Saharan Africa. It is a resident breeder in the forests of central Africa, found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, West Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and southern Sudan.-Description:40 cm; ranging...
, Tauraco schuettii - White-crested TuracoWhite-crested TuracoThe White-crested Turaco, Tauraco leucolophus, is a turaco, a group of near-passerines. The White-crested Turaco is native to riverine forest and woodland in a belt between eastern Nigeria and western Kenya.-References:...
, Tauraco leucolophus - Fischer's TuracoFischer's TuracoFischer's Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family.It is found in Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania.Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and arable land.It is threatened by habitat loss.-References:*...
, Tauraco fischeri - Yellow-billed TuracoYellow-billed TuracoThe Yellow-billed Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. ....
, Tauraco macrorhynchus - Bannerman's TuracoBannerman's TuracoBannerman's Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family. It is endemic to Cameroon. In French it is known as touraco de Bannerman or touraco doré. Its scientific and common names honor the ornithologist David Armitage Bannerman.Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist...
, Tauraco bannermani - Red-crested TuracoRed-crested TuracoThe Red-crested Turaco, Tauraco erythrolophus, is a turaco, a group of African near-passerines. It is a fruit-eating bird endemic to western Angola...
, Tauraco erythrolophus - Hartlaub's TuracoHartlaub's TuracoThe Hartlaub's Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family.It is found in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.-References:* BirdLife International 2004. . Downloaded on 24 July 2007....
, Tauraco hartlaubi - White-cheeked TuracoWhite-cheeked TuracoThe White-cheeked Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family.It is found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Sudan. A mid-sized species is measures in length, including a tail of , and weighs .-References:...
, Tauraco leucotis - Ruspoli's Turaco, Tauraco ruspolii
- Purple-crested TuracoPurple-crested TuracoThe Purple-crested Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family.It is found in Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe....
, Tauraco porphyreolophus
- Ruwenzori TuracoRuwenzori TuracoThe Ruwenzori Turaco is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Ruwenzorornis.It is found in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda.-References:...
- Ruswenzorornis johnstoni
Musophaga
Musophaga is a genus of bird in the Musophagidae family. It contains the following species:* Violet Turaco, Musophaga violacea* Ross' Turaco, Musophaga rossae...
- blue turacos
- Violet TuracoViolet TuracoThe Violet Turaco is a large turaco, a group of African near-passerines. It is a resident breeder in the forests of tropical west Africa. It lays two eggs in a tree platform nest....
,
Ross's Turaco
Ross's Turaco or Lady Ross's Turaco is a mainly bluish-purple African bird of the turaco family, Musophagidae.It is found in woodland, open forest and riparian habitats in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan,...
, Musophaga rossae
- Bare-faced Go-away-birdBare-faced Go-away-birdThe Bare-faced Go-away bird is a species of bird in the Musophagidae family.It is found in two areas of Africa: one in southern Ethiopia, and the other in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. It is named after its distinctive "go-away"...
, Corythaixoides personatus - Grey Go-away-birdGrey Go-away-birdThe Grey Go-away-bird , also known as Grey Lourie, Grey Loerie, or Kwêvoël, is a southern African bird of uniform grey with black beak and strikingly pink gape. It is widespread in savanna woodland, a clumsy flier though extremely agile in clambering through tree crowns. It has a distinctive loud...
, Corythaixoides concolor - White-bellied Go-away-birdWhite-bellied Go-away-birdThe White-bellied Go-away-bird, Corythaixoides leucogaster, is a widespread bird of Africa in the turaco family.- Description :This species averages 51 cm in length. Its long, pointed grey and black tail with a white median band is distinctive. A white wing patch is conspicuous in flight...
, Corythaixoides leucogaster
Crinifer
The Plantain-eater, Crinifer, are a genus of birds in turaco family. They are restricted to Africa. They are* Eastern Plantain-eater Crinifer zonurus* Western Plantain-eater, or Grey Plantain-eater, Crinifer piscator...
- plantain-eaters
- Western Plantain-eater,
- Great Blue TuracoGreat Blue TuracoThe Great Blue Turaco is a turaco, a group of African near-passerines. It is not only the largest turaco but the largest species in the diverse Cuculiformes order . Generally, the Great Blue Turaco is in length with a mass of...
, Corythaeola cristata
External links
- International Touraco Society
- Turaco videos on the Internet Bird Collection