Animalia Life

Criniferoides leucogaster
SUBFAMILY
Criniferinae
TAXONOMY
Chizaerhis leucogaster Ruppell, 1842, southern Ethiopia. Monotypic.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
English: White-bellied plantain-eater; French: Touraco a ventre blanc; German: Weissbauch-Larmvogel; Spanish: Turaco Ventriblanco.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
19–21 in (48–53 cm); 6.0–8.8 oz (170–250 g). A large grayand- white turaco with a stiff and pointed brownish gray crest rising from the forehead. Upperparts, sides of head, chin, and entire neck and breast gray, rest of underparts white. Black flight feathers with white bases form a conspicuous white speculum in flight; tail black with a broad white median band. Bill blackish in male, pea green in the female (sometimes yellowish when breeding). Juveniles similar to adult but browner.
DISTRIBUTION
Widely distributed in the arid and semi-arid savannas of eastern and northeastern Africa from Somalia, Ethiopia, and southern Sudan south through northern Uganda, northern and eastern Kenya to central Tanzania.
HABITAT
Typically in hot, low acacia savannas from sea level to 4,550 ft (1,400 m), but reaching 6,500 ft (2,000 m) on the Laikipia Plateau in central Kenya.
BEHAVIOR
A common and often conspicuous bird, occurring singly, in pairs, or family groups. Flies somewhat slowly with rather rapid wingbeats and much gliding. Like all turacos becomes extremely agile once landed. A noisy bird with a variety of sheep-like bleating calls.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Flowers, leaf shoots, and young acacia seed pods form an important aspect of their diet, as do the fleshy ripe fruits of Balanites trees and bushes. Will also readily eat exotic fruits as Carica (papaya) and Psidium (guava) if offered at bird feeders. Flowers and foliage of many dry country plants are consumed in vast quantities, as are their fruits whenever available.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Two or three glossy pale bluish green eggs are laid in a rather small, flat structure of twigs some 10–40 ft (3–12 m) above ground, generally in an acacia or Balanites tree. Incubation is by both sexes for 27–28 days. On hatching the young are covered in dark grayish brown down with a patch of bare skin around the eyes. They are fed a regurgitated pulp by both parents, and on a few occasions other birds have been observed “helping” at the nest. Fledging period remains unrecorded.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not globally threatened, and with no major threats to either its
HABITAT
or populations. With some trapping and export reported from Tanzania, it is recommended that it be listed in Appendix 3 of the CITES legislation.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
None known.

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