TURACO (touracos)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: touracos   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does turaco mean? 

• TURACO (noun)
  The noun TURACO has 1 sense:

1. large brightly crested bird of Africa

  Familiarity information: TURACO used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TURACO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Large brightly crested bird of Africa

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

touraco; turaco; turacou; turakoo

Hypernyms ("turaco" is a kind of...):

cuculiform bird (birds having zygodactyl feet (except for the touracos))

Holonyms ("turaco" is a member of...):

family Musophagidae; Musophagidae (touracos)

 Context examples 

Over time, global climates have cooled considerably, and the ancestors of modern turacos gradually shifted their range to more suitable areas.

(Past climate change pushed birds from the northern hemisphere to the tropics, University of Cambridge)

Today, Wyoming is much too cold for turacos for most of the year, but during the early Palaeogene period, which began with the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, the Earth was much warmer.

(Past climate change pushed birds from the northern hemisphere to the tropics, University of Cambridge)

For example, one such group, the turacos (‘banana eaters’) are fruit-eating birds which are only found in the forests and savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa, but fossils of an early turaco relative have been found in modern-day Wyoming, in the northern United States.

(Past climate change pushed birds from the northern hemisphere to the tropics, University of Cambridge)