Turaco

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A brightly colored tropical African bird of the family Musophagidae that lives in forest canopies and feeds mainly on fruit
2. An African forest bird with vivid green, blue or red feathers, known for its crest and its habit of living high in trees
3. A colorful fruit-eating bird native to the forests of sub-Saharan Africa, belonging to the plantain-eater family

Etymology: Turaco is the name for the crested, brightly plumaged birds of sub-Saharan Africa. English took it from French, where the matching form is "touraco," and the two spellings remain close relatives. The name almost certainly comes from an African language rather than from Latin or Greek, which is why it sits outside the classical vocabulary that most English bird names draw on. The exact source language is uncertain, so the safest statement is that the word arrived through European travellers and naturalists who recorded it from African speakers.

Synonyms: touraco