Hartlaub’s Turaco

Tauraco hartlaubi

Turacos are the only birds with true green pigment. Every other green bird is faking it with light tricks. Hartlaub's is not.

Population: Not numerically quantified; described as fairly common to locally abundant across its range (especially up to ~2,000 m), with an overall decreasing trend (suspected 1-19% decline over three generations from forest habitat/tree-cover loss)
Habitat: Subtropical/tropical moist montane evergreen forest and forest edge, roughly 370-4,320 m elevation (most commonly ~1,400-3,250 m, per field sources ~1,500-3,200 m); also adapted to wooded suburban gardens and parks (e.g. Nairobi)
Fun fact: Hartlaub's turaco - named after 19th-century German physician and ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub - is one of the few birds able to safely eat the fruit of Acokanthera longiflora, a plant so toxic it has traditionally been used to make arrow poison.
Range: East Africa only: Kenyan Highlands, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania; Extent of Occurrence ~346,000 km2
Diet: Primarily frugivorous - fruits and berries (including the toxic fruit of Acokanthera longiflora, which it tolerates, and exotic Cotoneaster in suburban gardens), supplemented with caterpillars, moths, and beetles
Size: 0.43 m

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