The go-away birds you'd like to stay

BILL NAYLOR describes some fascinating relatives of the turacos, and adds tips on their management in captivity

- BILL NAYLOR

ONE of the most common bird sounds of the African forests, is the chorus of calls, often not bird-like, produced by turacos. The green turacos (Tauraco species) vary mainly in the colour of their crests, eye stripes, spots and coloured orbital skin, which are said to aid camouflage in resembling areas of sunlight that penetrate the forest foliage. Although the typical turacos are apple green, there is much variety among the 23 species.

The two species of go-away birds (so-called because of their laughter-like call), and the western grey and eastern grey plantain-eaters lack the colours of the closely related true turacos and inhabit dry open areas, and their calls are not as powerful as those of the forest turacos. All turacos were once referred to as plantain-eaters, yet in fact none feed on plantain, a fruit-bearing plant similar to banana.

The western plantain-eater (Crinifer piscator) occupying West Africa, has a distribution four or five times larger than its eastern counterpart. It occurs from Mauritania through Nigeria and then east to the Central African Republic. There is also a small isolated population 200 miles to the south in the Congo. The much smaller range of the eastern plantaineater (C. zonurus) has become fragmented into three or four areas in the past 50 years, and it now occurs in various eastern countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. There is a slight overlap in the range of both species in central Africa but, although they are similar in habits and appearance (the eastern species has a shorter crest and a white band across the tail feathers), there is no evidence of hybridisation. (Some species of turacos have hybridised in captivity – obviously, not something to be encouraged.) Grey plantain-eaters are the size of a wood pigeon, with an additional 9in (23cm) tail.