Hank: Jessi from Animal Wonders has brought us a real, live bird from the now. And we were just talking while the cameras weren't rolling about how it's so hard to know now what dinosaurs really looked like because you can look so many different ways if you have feathers. For example you have a giant head hair—whoop, it's gone. It's gone and -

Brandon: It's coming back

Hank: It's coming back. So yeah

Jessi: Disappearing act.

Hank: We really have no idea, uhh, it'll just be impossible to really know what they look like until the time machine comes.

Brandon: Yeah time machines.

Jessi: Alright so this—

Hank: Who is - who is this?

Jessi: This is Curly Bird. He is a white cheeked turaco.

Hank: Turaco

Jesse: Yeah, and these guys are really neat. So you're talking about his little hairdo going on up there. That's a crest, and it's made out of specialized little feathers. They're really, you know, fine, and it's only there for display. So when he puts them up like that he gets really excited.

Hank: That's your excitement face

Jessi: Or I move him around. Um, if you wanna put out your hand nice and flat…

Hank: I have my hand nice and flat. Ah get it. Ooh grape.

Jessi: Nice work. Alright, so - 

Hank: Whoa, look at his feathers, wow.

Jessi: Yeah, we'll talk about those in a second. Hide those up, those are a surprise. Alright, so he puts that crest up when he's really excited, or when he's being territorial or when he's trying to impress a lady. 

Hank: Mhmm. 

Jessi: So he might be trying to impress you right now, Hank.

Hank: I'm impressed. 

Brandon: As you should be. 

Jessi: And then when he gets calm, he puts them down. So that's a display. Same with the orange around his eyes there, and he  - There's about 17 different kinds of turacos out there, and some of them use their different colors to do displays as well, different feather colors. We're talking a lot about pigment in feathers, and the turaco is a very interesting bird because of the pigment in their feathers.

So, most birds - it's a refracted light. It's a - it's like a yellow color in there, and then there's some blue that makes it green. So a lot of birds have green coloration in there, and it's not actual pigment - like inside their feather. These guys have their own special pigment inside. It's called Turacin and turacoverdin.  And the turacoverdin is what makes the verde - you know, the green coloration here. And the Turacin is what makes these - and actually this side's better 'case he's been taking baths. But you can see the red - 

Hank: Mmm, wow. 

Jessi: in there. And it ha - it's very high in copper. When they were first studying it, they thought it was high in iron, but it's not. It's very high in copper, and it has these brilliant colors. Now the interesting thing, because it's not refracted light, it's actual pigment, it's actually water soluble. Now, the turacin this color pigment is more water soluble than the turacoverdin of the green here.

So, if I put one of these feathers - if he drops one of these feathers, molts is, and I put it in a glass of water, it leeches it out. And you can see he's been taking some baths recently, it leeches the pigment out, and it turns the water pink, and it turns the feathers this dull white/pinky color like that.

Hank: Weird.

Jessi: So, the turacos aren't the only birds that have turacin and turacoverdin in - turacoverdin actually in there. There are a few others, so they're trying to place them in what family they're supposed to belong in.

Brandon: Mhmm.

Jessi: And they think they're really closely to gallifor - closely related to galliformes, but the turaco is it's own family right now. And they're diverted off a little bit. The red feathers underneath here are very highly prized for African tribes. The chiefs wear them, and it's - like the Zulu tribe over there. It's very common there. 

Hank: Mhmm.

Jessi: So I forgot to tell you where they're from! Africa.

Hank: Mkay.

Jessi: Of course. The eastern part of Africa, so around Ethiopia over there.  So really neat. These guys are also related to plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. So - 

Hank: Plantain-eaters?

Jessi: Plantain eaters. You know what a plantain is?

Hank: Yeah. Like a banana. 

Jessi: It's a banana. Yeah, so these turaco means banana-eater. But it's interesting because these guys don't eat bananas. They don't eat them in the wild. They eat other mostly fruit. And they'll also eat some other vegetation. But they're called - and I'll go ahead and give you another grape. He loves grapes. 

Hank: I love grapes too. 

Jessi: And you can see how he eats. It's got a little chunk of stuff on it too. See how he eats? He doesn't chew it up like a parrot would. He doesn't eat like a Psittacidae. He's gonna take just big bites of it. And these guys are called soft bill birds, becau- not because they have a soft bill. It's - it's hard. But they eat soft foods. So they just take a big bite of it, and then gobble it and swallow it down whole. 

You were talking about flight.

Brandon: Mhmm. 

Jessi: Now I'm kinda monopolizing the conversation. Sorry, guys. 

Brandon: It's alright.  It's a real bird.

Hank: He's - he's just stuck.

Brandon: I'm just, yeah.

Jessi: You were talking about flight. And these - it's interesting 'cause these guys actually, they're not that great of flyers. 

Brandon: Mhmm. 

Jessi: They have short - shorter wings than most birds would and they prefer to run. Now, Curly Bird can't run very well. He was born with a gimpy leg, one of the we have him is because he can't live in a big aviary with other birds. His foot curls up like that. But, a normal turaco has this really cool feet. So most, a lot of birds have 3 toes in the front and one in the back. So they can take their fourth digit here, and it swings.

Brandon: Rotate it.

Jessi: Yeah. It swings back and forth. 

Hank: Goes either way.

Brandon: Mhmm.

Jessi: Yeah. So it can have 2 toes in the front, 2 toes in the back. And a lot of times, his feet - he's not a good example of turaco feet, 'cause he is disabled. But, a lot of times, it'll just hold that extra toe at a right angle. And so they can use those to get to the very ends of the branches, and find foods that they might not be able to get. 

Brandon: Can we try something really quick?

Jessi: Let's see. 

Brandon: Can yo - just, holding him, can you tilt him backwards and let him flap? Will he - 

Jessi: He won't flap.

Brandon: Even if?  Oh.

Hank: Brandon cannot believe it.

Brandon: So, most birds - 

Jessi: Here, I can try to get him to flap if I, if I hold him like this a little bit and see

Brandon: If you hold him

Jessi: We'll see. 

Brandon: Because a lot of birds, when you tilt them backwards, they will try to flap to maintain their feet on whatever they're holding onto.

Hank: Push their feet. 

Jessi: Yes. Yes. 

Brandon: That's what baby birds actually do bef - well before they can fly. 

Jessi: Yeah. 

Brandon: And you don't need much of a wing to do that. And that's what we - one of the behaviors we've argued that dinosaurs could have used to - they could actually run up a vertical substrate. Like up a tree, or up a rock face.

Jessi: Yeah. 

Brandon: by flapping their wings. And so most birds -

Jessi: I'm sure almost every other bird would. 

Brandon: If you do that will, will do that. 

Jessi: Curly's a little bit different. 

Brandon: He's a little gimpy. Yeah, he's a little -

Jessi: He's not used to perching at all. 

Brandon: Yeah.

Hank: Aww. 

Jessi: Yeah, but actually, also, Turacos, when they're babies, they have a little wing claw here. 

Brandon: Yup, so they can kinda hook in just a little bit.

Jessi: So they're - yeah, climbing. They'll lose that when they get their full plummage. 

Brandon: Well a lot of galliformes have that. 

Jessi: Yeah, yeah. 

Brandon: And so they are - that's one of the reasons they think they're closely related to galliformes, is that they maintain a little claw. 

Hank: And I'm gonna eat you.

Jessi: That's - that's not a grape. 

Hank: You were very nice about it though. Just making sure it's not a grape. It looks like a grape.

Jessi: Would you like another grape? My fingers look like grapes now?
Oh! So let's talk about the red under their wings as well. So they would use this red under the wings, if a predator were to be prowling around the forest where they live. They live in a dark forest - dark, dense forest. That's one of the reasons they have shorter wings is when they do fly, they don't want to hit their wings on the - on the close, dense trees. 

When they do fly, if they get scared by a predator, they'll jump up and fly away. And they make this little barking call. Sounds like almost like a chihuahua or a monkey, mixed together. You wouldn't think it was coming from this animal. And he'll flash his red feathers as he flies through the forest, and that's going to warn his friends and family that something scary is out and around. He'll use that, those red feathers under there. 

Hank: Nice. Beautiful bird. You're kind of a dinosaur.  

Brandon: He is a dinosaur.

Jessi: Oh! Sorry. Little flap. The other reason-

Hank: Brandon wants to be clear, he is a dinosaur.

Brandon: Birds are dinosaurs. Absolutely. Dinosaurs did not go extinct. Just - 

Jessi: I was- 

Brandon: Just the non-avian dinosaurs. 

Hank: They just became much smaller... and cute.

Brandon. Yes. Prettier. Yeah. 

Jessi: You're a pretty dinosaur.

Brandon: Yup.

Jessi: I'm really excited to be able - oh, well there's some flapping!

Brandon: There you go.

Hank: Well, there's some flapping for you.

Brandon: There you go. Yeah.

Jessi: He wanted to show you. I wanted to bring Curly Bird here, and I'm really actually happy that I was able to because Curly is 16 years old. 

Hank: Oh, wow. 

Jessi: Which is quite old for a turaco. Usually their life span is between 11 and 12 years old. So he's like a great-grandpa bird. 

Hank: Yeah. 

Jessi: Pretty tough little guy. 

Hank: Great-grandpa, except he probably didn't have any babies. 

Jessi: No babies.

Hank: No babies.

Jessi: He's like a grouchy bachelor. There you go, bud.

Hank: Thank you for joining us grouchy bachelor. Thanks for bringing him in Jessi. And Brandon, fascinating to talk to you about your work.

Brandon: Thank you for having me. 

Hank: Very cool.  And thank you guys for watching. If you want to keep getting smarter with us here at SciShow, you can go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe.