The purple crested turaco slides into this week’s bird of the week column
The purple crested turaco's are very agile and able to run along and leap to other branches.
THE purple crested turaco is a fairly common resident confined to the extreme East of KZN, eSwatini, the Lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo river region.
They habit riverine forest, evergreen thickets, woodland, savanna, parks and gardens. They are found in pairs or small groups and they are shy and hard to observe as they keep to the canopy of trees.
They are also very agile and able to run along and leap to other branches. The turaco’s food preference is fruit, young insects, slugs and faeces of their chicks.
These turaco have a heavy flight, interspersed with glides and showing off their bright red under wings. The call is a rapid, high pitched ko – ko – ko – ko, a series of 10 to 15 notes rising in volume and pitch.
They also have a merging call of about 20 slower growling notes krr – krr – krr – krr, ending abruptly. Breeding takes place from August to January.
The nest is a platform of sticks in a tree or creeper usually above four meters from the surface. Two to three glossy white eggs are laid, the incubation period is 22 to 25 days and nestlings for 25 days.
The young are fed by both parents by regurgitating. The isiZulu name is iGwalagwala and in Afrikaans die bloukuifloerie.
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