a comprehensive resource of avian hand rearing techniques for captive bird populations

Great Blue Turaco

Corythaeola cristata

Cuculiformes - Musophagidae - Turacos

Great Blue Turaco - Juvenile

© David Woolcock

Great Blue Turaco - JuvenileGreat Blue Turaco - Day 7

Distribution: Equatorial Africa from Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia and Ivory Coast E to Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Bioko, Gabon, N Angola, Congo, Zaire, S Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, NW Tanzania and W Kenya

Habitat: Lowland, intermediate and montane rain forest.

Diet: Frugivorous, but buds, shoots and leaves and flowers also taken.

Breeding: Nest - Platform of dry sticks with a shallow rim. 8-25 m in tall leafy tree, often over water.

Clutch size: 2 eggs

Incubation: 29 - 31 days

Rearing: Both adults will take part in incubating, brooding and feeding (feed via regurgitation). Adults generally consume eggshell once the chicks have hatched.

Fledge age: 31 - 38 days

Protocols

Protocol from Paradise Park, Cornwall

View Paradise Park, Cornwall protocol file >

Protocol established 2011
Used on 1 individuals
Success rate 100.00%

Rating

Protocol used for at least 5 individuals with over 75% success 
Used by 2 or more institutions 
Points on minimizing imprinting 
Birds went on to produce fertile eggs 
Birds went on to successfully parent rear 

Warning points
None

Please keep us up-to-date and contact us with your own updates or new protocols for rearing the Great Blue Turaco.

References

Del Hoya, J., Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. eds. (1997). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Vol4. Sandgrouse to Cukoos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

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