Tauraco

Tauraco 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 Tauraco species apart from other Musophagidae. Indeed, as opposed to any other known birds, Tauraco turacos are the only living bird taxa that have any significant green pigment whatsoever, as the greens of many parrots etc. are due to structural color, not pigment. Their genus name was derived from a native West African name.[1]

Tauraco
Fischer's turaco (Tauraco fischeri)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Musophagiformes
Family:	Musophagidae
Subfamily:	Musophaginae
Genus:	Tauraco Kluk, 1779
Species
14, see text

Species

Species are:

Section	Image	Common Name	Scientific name	Distribution
Section Tauraco		Guinea turaco (also called green turaco)	Tauraco persa	West and Central Africa, ranging from Senegal east to DR Congo and south to northern Angola
		Livingstone's turaco	Tauraco livingstonii	Burundi, and is besides found from southern Tanzania to eastern and southern Malawi, eastern Zimbabwe, widely in Mozambique and along the subtropical coast of South Africa.
		Schalow's turaco	Tauraco schalowi	Zambia, central Angola, the southern DRC, and the uplands of southern Kenya, northern and western Tanzania and western Malawi
		Knysna turaco	Tauraco corythaix	South Africa
		Black-billed turaco	Tauraco schuettii	Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, West Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.
		White-cheeked turaco	Tauraco leucotis	Eritrea, Ethiopia, and South Sudan
		Fischer's turaco	Tauraco fischeri	Kenya, Somalia, and Tanzania
		Yellow-billed turaco	Tauraco macrorhynchus	Angola, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone
		Hartlaub's turaco	Tauraco hartlaubi	Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
		Ruspoli's turaco	Tauraco ruspolii	southern Ethiopia
		Purple-crested turaco	Tauraco porphyreolophus	Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Their southernmost occurrence is at the Mtamvuna River on the KwaZulu-Natal-Eastern Cape border
Section Proturacus		White-crested turaco	Tauraco leucolophus	eastern Nigeria and western Kenya
		Red-crested turaco	Tauraco erythrolophus	Angola
		Bannerman's turaco	Tauraco bannermani	Cameroon

The last species had sometimes been united with the Rwenzori turaco (Ruwenzorornis), and the great blue turaco (Corythaeola cristata) with Gallirex.

References

1. Carnaby, Trevor (2008). Beat about the bush: Birds (1st ed.). Johannesburg: Jacana. p. 31. ISBN 9781770092419.

External links