Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PLANTAIN-EATERS

(Family Musophagida)

Most closely related to the Cuckoos, at least as worked out in the system we are following, are the Plantain-eaters, or Touracos, a small group of often brilliant and curious birds, mostly with handsome erectile crests, confined in, their distribution to the continental portion of the Ethiopian region.

Between fifteen and thirty inches in length, they are separated from the Cuckoos by having the oil-gland tufted, the contour feathers with a large aftershaft, and the feet semizygodactylous, that is, with the outer or fourth toe capable of being turned either backward or forward, while the caeca are absent, and the neck vertebrae fifteen instead of fourteen.

To be more specific regarding them, they are birds with a relatively long neck, large eyes, and rather stout, broad bill in which the upper mandible is more or less serrated along the cutting edge, while the wings are short and rounded and the rounded tail is„composed of ten feathers.

The general coloration of the plumage consists mainly of metallic greens, blues, or light browns, usually with much of crimson and occasionally yellow, and the plumage, according to Church and others, is remarkable in that it contains a peculiar pigment known as turacin, which is so soluble in water that it is actually washed out when tjie feathers are wetted, as when the birds are washed by a heavy rain or enter the water for a bath. In the latter case they are said to impart a distinct color to the water, but in a very short time the normal color is restored to the feathers.

 

 

previous bird species next bird species