Black-billed turaco

Black-billed turaco
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Musophagiformes
Family: Musophagidae
Genus: Tauraco
Species: T. schuetti
Binomial name
Tauraco schuetti
(Cabanis, 1879)
Distribution of the black-billed turaco

The black-billed turaco (Tauraco schuetti) is a medium-sized turaco, an endemic family to sub-Saharan Africa. It is a resident breeder in the forests of central Africa, found in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, West Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan.

Description

The bird is 40 cm (16 in) long; ranging in weight from 199–272 g (7.0–9.6 oz). Adult similar to green turaco, distinguished by small all-black bill and rounded whitish crest. It lays two eggs in a platform of twigs around 3 to 5 m (9.8 to 16.4 ft) above the ground. Both the male and female defend a territory and share incubation duties.

Its call is a distinctive feature of the forests of the Congo, a resonant kwah khaw kwah. In areas where its range overlaps with the Ruwenzori turaco it will aggressively respond to the calls of that species.

It is a widespread species and is not threatened globally (CITES II).

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, October 20, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.