Purplecrested Turaco
Created | Updated Jan 13, 2013
Purplecrested Turaco
Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"
It's time for another beautiful bird! This is the Purplecrested Turaco, Tauraco porphyreolophus. I have already written much about turacos in my articles on the Knysna Turaco and the Grey Go-Away Bird. This species is closer to the Knysna Turaco, usually being placed in the same genus, but occasionally it is separated into a separate genus Gallirex along with the rare Ruwenzori Turaco.
I am fortunate to have seen these birds in the wild and also close-up. The first time I got a good look at them was at a wonderful school camp on the south Natal coast. That was in 1988. It was a pretty harsh camp as always in those days … the adults seemed to fear nothing so much as that the children should be having actual fun. It was military-style drills all the way, us getting chased around from morning till night, rigorously enforced discipline, just about no free time whatsoever. We were out and running in all weathers and it rained the entire time. All the clothes I took along got mold damage. I was so afraid of the punishment that would be visited upon me that I did not inform any of the adults of having broken my hand on the first day – I had been in a brief fight with another kid. So I went through the entire camp and all the activities and drills with the broken hand, betraying none of the pain and inconvenience.
So you must understand just how lovely the scenery and wildlife was when I tell you that I remember this camp with fond memories and joy. The region was one of the still unspoilt remaining stretches of South Africa's southeastern coastline. The habitat was dune bush and patches of forest in sheltered places, with open grassland on more exposed dunes and the rolling hills deeper inland, and I noted a wealth of wonderful plant species I'd not noticed before. The forest featured wild bananas, lala palms, date palms and cabbage trees; the dune vegetation included sea tackies, coast red milkwoods and coast aloes. I remember a lovely patch of wild Giant White Arum flowers, Zanthedeschia aethiopica, growing in a swampy forest area where we had to complete an obstacle course. I noted with sadness a stretch of river where, due to the unusually high rainfall and the high volume of water, an entire bank had collapsed and the soil was washed away out to sea. At the same time the dune tackies and other vegetation were doing their best to hang on to the beach sand and to preserve it from the assault of the waves. This trip was one of the most influential in my life in teaching me about environments in their totality.
Among other things I saw on this trip (see my article about the Forest Tree Frog) was the Purplecrested Turaco. I was already familiar with the Knysna Turaco, it being a common bird in the Magoebaskloof Forests not far from where I live. The Knysna Turaco can be heard almost all the time, though not so frequently seen; its hoarse, evocative call is a major element establishing the atmosphere in those misty forests. But here along the coast I heard a call, similar yet different. The Purplecrested Turaco's call is harsher and has a cackling element to it. It's difficult to describe in words, like all bird calls, but it goes something like, ‘kok-kok-kok-kok-kok-koo-KOO-KOO-KOO-KOO-KOO-koo-koo-korrrr-korrrr-korrrr-korrrrrr', starting fast and low, rising in tone and slowing down, petering out in harsh, almost cough-like sounds. Here you can hear it: Purplecrested Turaco in Kruger National Park.
These are the sounds I heard in the forest and I knew what it was long before I actually saw any of the birds. But of course I was looking out for them! The Knysna turacos that I know are best appreciated when they fly from one tree to another, viewed from below, with the sun illuminating their beautiful crimson flight feathers. So I was attentive – as much as the activities allowed – and finally was rewarded with several glimpses of these birds! Unfortunately there was not time to have a really long, good look at them … but I was grateful to have had a look at them at all.
Since then I've seen these birds a few times in the wild, but the best look I got was of a tame bird in a big aviary here in Polokwane. Like all the forest turacos, this one is beautifully coloured … not only the bright red wing feathers, but all over. Turacos have very soft, fluffy feathers on their bodies and heads. In this one the crest feathers are dark purple, the head feathers deep, iridescent green, and the body olive-green with an orange or pinkish wash around the breast. The wing coverts and tail are iridescent purplish-blue and the belly blackish. The eye has a red ring of naked skin around it. The red flight feathers are normally not seen, being hidden underneath the wing coverts. I include for you here an old painting in which I give a frontal view as well as a view of a flying turaco, to show the bright red primary feathers. I am not entirely satisfied with this painting but it does at least do the job of illustrating the bird in flight.
While the Knysna Turaco is found in tall, moist forests, this turaco prefers regions not so heavily forested. The lower, more open coastal dune forests suit it well, and further to the north it is found in dry forests, well-developed woodland and tall trees fringing rivers in savannah regions. It as a much wider distribution range, being found up into East Africa as far north as Uganda and Kenya. It is also a fruit eater, sometimes eating buds and flowers as well. The watercolour painting shows one in a Sycomore Fig tree , a favourite source of fruit for this and many other birds species. Turacos on occasion catch and eat insects.
An interesting feature that I didn't mention in the Kysna Turaco article is that turacos have reversible toes! By that I mean they can turn their outermost toes on each foot either forward or backward, so that they can either have three toes pointing forward and one backward, or two forward and one backward. This helps them very much in clambering around trees. These birds actually climb, run and leap around amidst the branches more than they fly. They can run fast on the ground as well. The usually come down to drink at waterholes, in which case they must be nimble and quick to avoid being trampled by big mammals! They also enjoy bathing, dipping and splashing water all over themselves with their heads, wings and tails. They can look rather scruffy after this until they'd dried out and preened themselves.
These turacos always nest in trees, in places like tangles of creepers or thorny thickets on termite hills or at the edges of forests. The nest is a rather flimsy, open contraption made of twigs. Into this the mother lays two or three white eggs. The chicks hatch covered in dark grey down and with open eyes. The parents will eat the eggshells after or even while the chicks hatch. They will feed the growing chicks and swallow their droppings! This is to keep the nest clean. The chicks leave the nest at three weeks and will clamber around the vegetation for a while before they learn to fly.
This turaco is the national bird species of the Kingdom of Swaziland, a small country enclosed by South Africa and Mozambique. The royal family uses the crimson wing feathers for ceremonial purposes. In the rest of southern Africa the species is protected, and being adaptable, in many places entering suburban gardens, it is not in danger of extinction at present.
