Hi,

Having always loved turacos, I purchased my first pair (White-cheeked) last October. I was provided sexing certificates showing them as a true pair and was advised that they were June 2009 babies.

I housed them in a 12ft square aviary and they feed well on T16 pellets and fresh apple, pear, carrot, and whatever else was available. Although the aviary is half covered and well sheltered, they insist on sleeping outdoors in all weather, including the heavy snow that we had over the winter. However this seems to have had no ill effects and they are thriving.

They share the aviary with my partner’s four chickens and from March, a pair of Rosellas that she couldn’t resist from a show. They seem to get along quite amicably with all of their housemates.

One of the reasons I chose turacos is that I was advised that they are relatively quiet, but for about the last month, one of them (I assume the male, but haven’t checked) has started getting very vocal. I suppose I can most accurately describe this as a low “grunting” noise. With the early mornings and most of the windows open due to the current temperatures, this is turning into quite a wakeup call at around 5am! Whilst it doesn’t bother me especially, I am starting to get a bit concerned about what the neighbours think. They love watching our birds and have made no objections, but I’m worried it might get too much.

What I really want to know is, is this noise normal for turacos? Is it a seasonal thing, or have they just come of age? Are they objecting to their aviary mates, or are they wanting something else? Currently the aviary doesn’t have the facility to shut the birds inside overnight, but I have considered making this alteration.

Some advice from someone with more experience in these birds would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Please contact me: Richard Callcut

Hi there,

Firstly, I hope you are well and are having a good beginning of year! At Lotherton there is little to report at the moment. We have a partner for our Hartlaub's singleton. Hopefully we'll get some results although it may be too soon! Bad news is our beloved hand reared White-cheeked died abruptly last year. The thought was a member of public fed her something that killed her. I should find out for sure but it's still a huge sore point with her keeper and 'mother'. Hopefully this year will be better...I do hope so, and then I'll have some information for the website!

Now the strange request....I'm a fan of tattoos and am thinking of having a real life turaco 'inked' onto my shoulder. I always regarded myself as a mammal person until I met Turacos, and now I'm hooked! The tattoo is to commemorate this point in my life when the world of birds has been opened up for me and things are heading in the right direction career-wise, and my love of the bird!

Members please e-mail me your best turaco photos vollavon@yahoo.com. I'd prefer the green turacos especially the White-cheeked, but will consider others too. My favourite picture (and the most tattoo-able) will be tattooed onto me! A strange competition...!!! It'll be later this year to next year when I'll get it done and I'll be send the photos! Don't worry...I've thought about and wanted this for a while and am currently researching the best people in the country to do the job!

Many thanks,
Yvonne Welsh

I have recently looked through my turaco pictures and noticed that I am missing pictures of some key species. I just wondered if any of these species were kept in the U.K and if so, would there be the possibility of me being able to take a picture of them.

Green-crested Turaco (persa, zenkeri and I have a horrendous set of shots of buffoni from Antwerp and Harewood House)
Knysna Turaco
Yellow-billed Turaco
Purple-crested Turaco (chloroclamys)
Black-billed Turaco (schuetti)
Bare-faced Go-away Bird (personata)
Grey Go-away Bird
Eastern Grey Plantain-eater

Thank you very much in advance.

Please contact: Jonathan Beilby

E-mail: jonathan@beilby.gotadsl.co.uk

We are looking for turacos for our zoo here in Finland.
The aviary I hope to house turacos in is 8 meters wide, 3 meters deep and 3 meters high.
The area being so large we think we can take at least a pair, or even more birds.
I hope to find some turacos very quickly in time for the summer season.

Please contact::

Jarmo Lanki - Tropicario - Sturenkatu 27 - 00510 Helsinki - Tel./fax: +358 (0)9 750 076

E-mail: tropicario@tropicario.com
Web site: www.tropicario.com

Our young White-cheeked turacos gets red on their chest. Would be that from the food or is there another reason? Hopefully you can help us. They eat T16 pellets supplemented with fruit. Greetings Stijn.

E-mail: Stijn.De.Meyere1@pandora.be

Possible answer (provided by Nigel Hewston):

When I bred White-cheeked Turacos many years ago my young birds would sometimes have red on the chest. I have a vague recollection that it was often on birds which had been fed a lot of leaves by their parents, but I may be wrong. In any case, as far as I can remember the birds were always healthy and normally coloured as adults.

A problem season with a new pair of White-cheeked Turacos:

I have hatched and reared turacos some years ago. Also I have hatched and reared many parrots and cockatoos. I now have a pair of White-cheeked Turacos again. They are in fine health and on the best diet. I also soak their pellets for a few minutes in Green Tea, which is best for iron control. This is their first year with me and they are trying to breed BUT it has been what you could call their Annus Terribelus!

• 1st clutch - threw eggs out.
• 2nd clutch - stopped sitting at 10 days.
• 3rd clutch - put them in an incubator at 37.5 °C. One not fertile, one fertile, but it had got cold while with them.
• 4th clutch - straight into the incubator, but only one fertile. Pipped at wrong end and then shot one leg out of the side of the egg. It turned out it had dislocated the leg at the hip. I tried taping the leg, but no good, so had to kill it at 9 days old.
• 5th clutch - one fertile, one not. Straight in the incubator. I slightly tipped this egg to encourage it to pip at the right end. It pipped half way up but then continued at the top. Hatched well, but started gaping. I think it had swallowed a little liquid from the egg, although it was not a wet hatch. End of chick!
• 6th clutch - one fertile, one not. Hatched absolutely by the book. Then this very strong chick dropped dead! No shock or any change in temperature or environment.
• 7th clutch - one fertile, one not. Dead in shell at 10 days.
• 8th clutch - one fertile, other blood ring at 7 days.
• 9th clutch - I thought I would try leaving the eggs with them. They sat well for 16 days, when they packed it in. I candled the eggs and both were fertile but dead.

I wonder what next year will bring? Open for ideas.

I thought you'd be interested to know that we have two White-cheeked Turacos living quite happily in the wild in the grounds of my Company in Southampton. They escaped from a nearby aviary at least two years ago and are thriving. We regularly feed them fruit and they come right up to the windowsill for this.

Some further information and more photographs can be seen in the Members 'News' section of this website.

Hello, we have recently handreared a second White-cheeked Turaco on the understanding it was for a local wildlife park. When he/she (sex unknown) was around 3/4 months, just as his beak started to turn red, we tried to introduce him to a fairly large aviary housing one 3 year old White-cheeked Turaco. We started by keeping him in a separate cage in full view of the other bird and gradually moved him closer to the main enclosure but after finally releasing him into the aviary the older bird has continued to attack him. We have gone back to the separate cage and tried again but this is still proving difficult. I would be grateful of any advice or suggestions regarding introduction of young birds to older more established birds.

Suggestion: It will depend on whether you have any other aviaries available. If so then you could move the older bird out for a month or so while the younger bird gets used to the aviary. Then move the older bird back into the flight.
Do you know the sex of either bird? You may find you have got two males.
If you don't have any spare flights, then you could put in a temporary partition to add the younger bird into a section of the flight, until it is used to it.
Some people advocate clipping one wing a little on aggressive birds to slow them down, but that may not be a good idea with winter approaching.
Try adding extra cover within the flight, with a food bowl in the cover too, so the bird being chased can feed where it is hiding.

Hello, I am contacting you looking for some advice. During very necessary restoration work at the tropical greenhouse nearby a turaco hartlaubi took his (or her) chance to escape. Now its hanging around at my garden, probably enjoying some of the berries and fruit there. I am offering it a similar mixed diet like it received in captivity before and it has helped itself several times. Its favourite perch seems to be the fairly dense hazelnut bush.
Any ideas what I can do to catch it to be returned to the greenhouse?
Much obliged.

I have only once had a turaco out around my garden - a White-cheeked. It was while I had a mass of ripe plums on my fruit trees, but the turaco ignored them and came eagerly for a bowl of its usual diet which I placed in a Larsen (Magpie) trap. The bird was caught at its first visit. If you are unfamiliar with a Larsen, it has doors in the top of a wire cage which hinge down and are held open by a stick across. The stick is actually in two pieces, broken in the middle. When a bird lands on the stick it falls apart and the door springs up, trapping the occupant. (See attached) I placed the Larsen trap up on a frame in the tree that the turaco had been perching in.
Alternatively, if you have an empty flight you could leave the door open with food just inside. By placing the food a little further in each time, the bird could be encouraged to enter far enough in. String on the door would allow you to close it from a distance.
Hope you manage to catch her/him. David Jones.

Hello from Belgium!

Congratulations for your nice web site.
Here are two pictures of Western Grey Plantain-Easter, Crinifer piscator I have see in a zoo in Belgium.

Question: Can you explain how to take good care of this type of bird. What size of aviary is necessary?

Thank you.

Dr. Couneson

Answer (provided by Nigel Hewston):

Hello Sylvie,

Thanks for the photos and your comments on the website. Plantain-eaters eat fruit with a little universal or pellets as do other touracos, but also need more leafy food like spinach, lettuce, cabbage or wild plants. I have not kept them myself but aviary size would be as for other touracos, about 2 x 5m, or more if available. There have been two articles on Plantain-eaters in our magazines:

• Issue 9 - Eastern & Western Grey Plantain-eaters by Don Turner, which talks about the species in the wild and their evolution.
• Issue 12 - Western's Go Green by Nathan Crockford, which talks about captive breeding of the Western species at the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

Members can see more about Western Greys on the 'News' page of this website.