Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various fruit-eating African birds of the family Musophagidae, having brightly colored plumage, a long tail, and a prominent crest.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of large brightly crested birds of the genus Turacus, native of Africa. They eat plantain and are remarkable for the peculiar green and red pigments found in their feathers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of the birds in the
Musophagidae family with vivid colouring and prominentcrest .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun large brightly crested bird of Africa
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The stunning Rwenzori turaco (Musophaga johnstoni), found in ten forest islands of the Albertine Rift, has a mantle of iridescent green, orange-yellow cheeks, blue back and tail, and bright red primary feathers.
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Notable species are the bamboo warbler Bradypterus alfredi and Shelley's crimson-wing Cryptospiza shelleyi (T) the endemic Ruwenzori turaco Musophage johnstoni, and two sunbirds, the regal Cynnyris regius and the larger scarlet-tufted malachite Nectorinia johnstonii dartmouthi.
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The striking Prince Ruspolis turaco (Tauraco ruspolii, VU) is threatened by declining habitat.
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Notable mountain forest birds are the Rwenzori turaco, Musophaga johnstoni and the handsome francolin, Francolinus nobilis; also the forest ground thrush Turdus oberlaenderi and the shoebill Balaeniceps rex.
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The seriema-hoatzin clade was closely allied with a cuckoo-turaco clade.
Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006
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The seriema-hoatzin clade was closely allied with a cuckoo-turaco clade.
Goodbye, my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin Darren Naish 2006
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Birds include Denham's bustard Neotis cafra denhami, ground hornbill Bucorvus abyssinicus, violet turaco Musophaga violacea, spur-winged goose Plectropterus gambensis, white-faced tree duck Dendrocygna viduata, martial eagle Polemaetus bellicosus and bateleur Terathopius ecaudatus.
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In a novel twist, he further announced that New World vultures (vulturids, aka cathartids) were the next closest relatives of the turaco-cariamaen clade.
Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006
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The rich avifauna (400 species in the Victoria Falls region as a whole) includes a wide range of waterbirds along the river above the falls, and birds such as Heuglin's robin Cossypha heuglini, Knysna turaco Tauraco corythaix, and trumpeter hornbill Bycanistes bucinator in the falls 'rainforest' area.
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The conservation of the forests of Mount Oku is the last remaining hope for two species, Bannerman's turaco (Tauraco bannermani, EN) and the banded wattle-eye (Platysteira laticincta, EN), which are restricted to montane forests in the Bamenda-Banso highlands.
Biological diversity in the Guinean forests of West Africa 2008
reesetee commented on the word turaco
See mollusque's lovely photo of the Purple-Crested Turaco on gallirex.
April 17, 2008
reesetee commented on the word turaco
Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco (Vulnerable), is a macaw-sized bird with scarlet and navy-blue wings, long tail and green-and-white head. It was first discovered among the personal effects of Prince Ruspoli after he was crushed to death by an elephant in 1893. As the unfortunate nobleman had not had time to label the specimen, its origins remained a mystery for half a century before the species was seen in the wild by an English naturalist in southern Ethiopia. — "Ethiopian surveys find high densities of Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco but highlight threats"
November 28, 2010