Musophaga rossae (Ross's turaco,
Ross's lourie)
Rooikuifloerie [Afrikaans]; Lady Ross-toerako [Dutch];
Touraco de Lady Ross [French]; Rossturako [German]; Turaco de Ross [Portuguese]
Life
> Eukaryotes >
Opisthokonta
> Metazoa (animals) >
Bilateria >
Deuterostomia > Chordata >
Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates) > Gnathostomata (jawed
vertebrates) > Teleostomi (teleost fish) > Osteichthyes (bony fish) > Class:
Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned
fish) > Stegocephalia (terrestrial
vertebrates) > Tetrapoda
(four-legged vertebrates) > Reptiliomorpha > Amniota >
Reptilia (reptiles) >
Romeriida > Diapsida > Archosauromorpha > Archosauria >
Dinosauria
(dinosaurs) > Saurischia > Theropoda (bipedal predatory dinosaurs) >
Coelurosauria > Maniraptora > Aves
(birds) >
Musophagiformes > Family: Musophagidae
Distribution and habitat
Occurs from Cameroon to Uganda south through the DRC to
Zambia and Angola. It is a rare vagrant to southern Africa, recorded twice in northern Botswana and once in northern Namibia (near the Caprivi Strip). It generally prefers evergreen and riverine forest, deciduous
thickets with termite mounds and dense miombo (Brachystegia), mavunda (Cryptosepalum)
and marquesia (Marquesia) forests.
Food
Mainly eats fruit, doing most of its foraging in groups in
the forest canopy. The following food items have been recorded
in its diet in central Africa:
- Plants
- fruit
- Rhoicissus (wild grapes)
- Bridelia (sweetberry)
- Musanga (stinging nettle)
- Dahlgrenodendron (wild laurels)
- Psidium guajava (cultivated guavas)
- flowers of Grevillea (alien silky oak)
- Invertebrates
References
-
Hockey PAR, Dean WRJ and Ryan PG 2005. Roberts
- Birds of southern Africa, VIIth ed. The Trustees of the John Voelcker
Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.
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