Turacos are remarkable birds; one of their toes can swivel forward or backward, and some of their feathers are colored by pigments found in no other creature in the Animal Kingdom. Colorful Catch There are about 28 turaco species in the Family Musophagidae, all native to equatorial Africa. Seeing one of these handsome birds in its native forest or woodland habitat takes patience, persistence, and a pretty good set of binoculars. Turacos spend almost all their time in the tree canopy, where their blue, green, or gray hues (depending on the species) keep them camouflaged as they forage for fruit, leaves, and flower buds. The blue and gray colors are the result of light refracting from structures within the feathers. In other birds, green and red are also the result of refraction or melanin—only in the turacos are red and green feathers due to actual pigments. Turacin, which gives turacos red feathers, and turacoverdin, which creates green, are copper-based pigments found only in tu-
racos. The birds get these crucial ingredients from their food. Other birds may eat the same types of fruit, but they excrete the color-causing element while a turaco’s body concentrates it in specific feathers. It can take up to a year for a turaco to take in enough pigments for its feathers to reach their full color. There is an old, often-repeated misconception that a turaco caught in heavy rain will lose its brightred coloring because the turacin is washed out of the plumage—but that simply doesn’t happen.
Run, Hop, Glide Watch a turaco at the San Diego Zoo or the Safari Park (see sidebar on next page) and notice how often it uses its wings—or doesn’t. With short, rounded wings, turacos are poor fliers but agile in the SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL
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