White-cheeked turaco, Tauraco leucotis (protonym, Corythaix leucotis), also known as the white-cheeked plantain-eater, photographed at Aregash Lodge, Ethiopia (Africa).
The next four African mystery bird that you see will share two common themes: first, they all were photographed in Ethiopia, and second, well, I'll leave that for you to figure out.
Question: This lovely Ethiopian mystery bird's chicks have a very strange and evocative anatomical feature, can you tell me what that might be?
Response: This is an adult white-cheeked turaco, Tauraco leucotis, a frugivorous species that is found in highland forests of Ethiopia and Eritrea.
This species has several interesting anatomical features. First, they have strong feet and can rotate their fourth toe either forward or backward to get a better grip on their perch. Second, this species' chicks have claws on their wings, a strange (for a bird) and evocative anatomical feature that almost seems to recall their ancient cousin, Archaeopteryx. The chicks shed these claws by the time they fledge.
This handsome and energetic African bird is a popular avicultural subject throughout the United States and the United Kingdom and are even hand-fed so they grow up to be very tame pets.
Dan, the photographer, writes about this bird:
This bird is one of a party of about 15 that moved by us in the forest. Very difficult to photograph. Bad lighting, and on the move. Nearly endemic to Ethiopia -- small range extension into Sudan.
I must correct something that bogtrotter said in reader comments. Most birds' green plumage colour is the result of a combination of both structural colouration and pigments. Turacos are unique as far as we know because they alone among birds produce a green pigment, turacoverdin, that they colour their feathers with. (Read this essay I wrote about the physics of plumage colouration due to schemochromes. I couldn't make my correction in reader comments because this linked essay includes several images, including a picture of a turaco, which would have given away the identity of this mystery bird!)
Here's a nice video that captures a captive specimen "singing" at the Vogelpark Walsrode in Germany:
You are invited to review all of the daily mystery birds by going to their dedicated graphic index page.
If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative international audience here at The Guardian, feel free to contact me to learn more.