Musophaga

Musophaga
Ross's turaco (Musophaga rossae)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Musophagiformes
Family:	Musophagidae
Genus:	Musophaga Isert, 1788

Musophaga is a genus of bird in the Musophagidae family found in Africa.

Description

Like most members of the Turakos family, both species stand out with their colorful plumage. The Violet turaco has a shiny metallic and violet shimmering plumage; in the Ross turako the purple shimmer are more pronounced. In both species, the hand wings glow with crimson hems and peaks crimson. The responsible red copper-containing dye Turacin, which is unique in the bird world only within the family turakos, is washed out in rainy weather or bathing in slightly alkaline water in small quantities. To ensure that the red dye does not disappear over time, the moult creates new feathers that take up turacin through the body. Fully developed feathers can not remove dye from the body.

In both species, the forehead and the crest are crimson. The over the lower eyelid running white streak in Violet turaco is not present in the Ross Turako. At the beak root, the beak is relatively bulging, strongly rounded towards the tip of the beak and merges into a shield-like round plate on the forehead. The non-feathered nostrils are elongated horizontally in the middle of the beak towards the beak tip.

Species

It contains the following species:

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Musophaga violacea	Violet turaco	West Africa, from Senegal through to the Nigeria, with an isolated population in Chad and Central African Republic.
	Musophaga rossae	Ross's turaco	Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia