2016 Bonanza Bird #4: White-cheeked Turaco

Birdorable White-cheeked Turaco

Today's new Birdorable Bonanza bird is a pretty bird from Africa: the White-cheeked Turaco!

White-cheeked Turacos are beautiful birds in the Musophagidae ("banana eater") family. Turacos are gregarious and social birds that live in family groups of around 10 birds.

The underside of the White-cheeked Turaco's wings are crimson red. This, along with their green feathers, makes their plumage special in the avian world. Most green plumage in birds is the result of a yellow pigment combined with the physical structure of the feather (the way they reflect light) -- they only appear green but are not truly green. Turacos have the only truly green pigment known in birds. The red underwings have a similar story: turacos are the only birds to have the true red pigment turacin.

Although they are from eastern central Africa, colorful turacos are common in captivity and can be viewed in zoos all over the world. The White-cheeked Turaco is found in aviaries at the Toronto Zoo, the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, Folly Farm in the U.K., and others.


Photo by Ozzy Delaney (CC BY 2.0)

Tomorrow's new bird is a large species of North American wood warbler, named for the shape of its nest. Can you guess the species?

Comments

Josh on November 29, 2016 at 12:15 AM wrote:
Ovenbird?
Louise Warner on April 12, 2017 at 8:20 AM wrote:
ovenbirds have the slender-bill and are a wood warbler!
yotaDcool Superbird on April 29, 2017 at 7:59 AM wrote:
wood finch

Leave a comment

Comments with links or HTML will be deleted. Your comment will be published pending approval.
Your email address will not be published

T-Shirt Tuesday: Endurance Champ

This week's highlighted t-shirt features a bird well-known for its amazing migration. The Bar-tailed Godwit is a long-distance migratory record-holder, with a recorded non-stop journey of over 7,000 miles! Our cute original Endurance Champ is great for anyone that admires these amazing birds, and for anyone...

2019 Bonanza Bird #4: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Today's new Birdorable bird joins our duck family! We are introducing the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck! Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks nest in tree cavities and will use nest boxes. They can often be found perching in trees. In fact, they used to be known...

Birdorable Bonanza July 15th to 31st

We started Birdorable almost three years ago and in this time have created 183 different cute birds, from Abyssinian Lovebird to Zebra Finch. The first dozen birds we cutified were American backyard birds, like the Cardinal and Blue Jay, and almost all the...

2019 Bonanza Bird #6: Surf Scoter

Today we are introducing a species of sea duck to our Birdorable family: the Surf Scoter! Surf Scoters feed on a variety of marine invertebrates. They are restricted to North American waters, breeding on freshwater bodies in Alaska and Canada and wintering...