Turacos | Musophagidae

Toerako's | Turacos

Two forms occur here: forest turacos, grass-green to violet with a white-marked face, a tall crest and crimson flight feathers that flare only as the wing opens, and the wholly grey species of dry savanna and thornveld, with a loose pointed crest and a long tail. The forest birds keep to gorge forest, coastal forest and montane woodland and give themselves away with a deep barking chorus that accelerates and is taken up by several birds at once; the grey species calls a loud, nasal, sharply cut-off note from an exposed perch and is for that reason almost always heard before it is seen. Foraging is silent and agile: the birds run along horizontal branches, hang at fruit clusters and swallow figs and berries whole. Crossing an open gap is done low and reluctantly, in a short burst of beats followed by a glide in which the red of the wing is fully displayed. The nest is a see-through platform of thin twigs in dense foliage; both parents incubate two or three eggs and feed the young on regurgitated fruit pulp.