Best Place to see Turaco's

Hawk

Hawk

Well-Known Member
Well the title says it all, I'm really into birds and have always had a soft spot for Turaco's. I visit the Cotswold Wildlife park quite a lot and love their collection of Turaco there and was wondering which zoos would the community here say have a good collection of Turaco?
 
Chester's got to be up there; by my reckoning they currently have:

Violet Plantain-Eater Musophaga violacea
White-bellied Go-away-bird Corythaixoides leucogaster
Red-crested Turaco Tauraco erythrolophus
Fischer's Turaco Tauraco fischeri
White-crested Turaco Tauraco leucolophus
White-cheeked Turaco Tauraco leucotis
Schalow's Turaco Tauraco schalowi

Good number of species and some nice oddities as well. Blackbrook's also worth a look - they have Purple-crested, White-crested and Great Blue Turacos and Lady Ross' Plaintain-Eater, among others.
 
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Paradise Park Hayle also has Purple-crested,also pretty certain they have another 2 or 3 species at least as well.
 
What happened to the collection at Grangewood zoo, has it closed?
They claimed to have the UK's largest collection of turaco
 
They did have a very nice collection (the owner was involved in the Turaco Society and was kind enough to supply me with a copy of the wonderful Turacos of the World poster they produced). It closed down a couple of years ago - I believe the owner relocated to Cyprus, and may have taken some of the collection with him (certainly that was his intention before closing as I recall).
 
Blackbrook:

Livingstones Turaco
White crested turaco
Hartlaub's turaco
Purple crested turaco
Violet turaco
Lady Ross' turaco
Western grey plantain eater
Great Blue turaco
Bare faced go-away bird
 
Linton Zoo only has Lady Ross' Turaco i being a big cat person even find this species of bird interesting :)
 
Chester's White-bellied Go-away-birds are housed in the bird house. They are not labelled but are kept with the Congo Peafowl. As far as I remember the White-crested Turacos are in the Tropical Realm. The Violet Turacos are in the first aviary in the bird house (across from the porcupines). The Red-crested Turacos are in the bird house, their aviary is alongside the bird house kitchen opposite the shop, and the others are either in the pheasant aviaries on the picnic lawn by RoRA, or the bird house.
 
Thank you for all your help, it's all much appreciated. I'll check out these collections that you have mentioned when I get a chance
 
bongorob said:
Chester's White-bellied Go-away-birds are housed in the bird house. They are not labelled but are kept with the Congo Peafowl. As far as I remember the White-crested Turacos are in the Tropical Realm. The Violet Turacos are in the first aviary in the bird house (across from the porcupines). The Red-crested Turacos are in the bird house, their aviary is alongside the bird house kitchen opposite the shop, and the others are either in the pheasant aviaries on the picnic lawn by RoRA, or the bird house.
Click to expand...

I believe the Schalow's have now been moved to the African Aviary.
The Fischers are housed with the Malay Crestless Firebacks on the picinc lawn
The Violet Plantain-Eaters are in the Tropical Realm, free-flying.
The White-Cheeked's im not too sure about, I actually visited today and remember seeing them but i dont remember where. At a guess id say the bird house.
 
currently at bristol we have a pair of red crested turaco's, a fischers turaco and a violaceous turaco. really nice birds!
 
Thanks for the update ZooMania.

The transfer of the Schalow's was delayed because they had chicks.
 
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This is a list of turaco held at Grangewood zoo in 2002, at the time the largest collection of turaco in the UK, it is lifted from the winter 2002 edition of zoo magazine.

white bellied go away bird
bare faced go away bird
western grey plantain eater
Lady Ross's turaco
violaceous turaco
Buffon's turaco
Fischers's turaco
Livingstone's turaco
green turaco
Schalow's turaco
red crested turaco
Hartlaub's turaco
white cheeked turaco
purple crested turaco
black billed turaco

15 species and sub species in all.

The bare faced go away bird was the only one of its type in the UK at the time.

In the same article there is a mention of Raymond Sawyer's world famous collection at Cobham, Surrey, where the UK's first captive bred violaceous turaco was hatched in 1984.
 
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