Turaco

For green, yes — turacos are the only birds known to produce a true green pigment, called turacoverdin. Almost every other green bird in the world, from parrots to green woodpeckers to the resplendent quetzal, is not actually pigmented green — its feathers contain a yellow pigment plus a microscopic structure that scatters blue light, and the two combine in the eye to look green. Turacos short-circuit that by making an actual green molecule. For red, the situation is that turacos have a unique red pigment, turacin, which is a copper-containing porphyrin found in no other bird family; other birds do have red pigments (mostly carotenoids from their diet), so turacos are not the only birds with any red, but their particular red is theirs alone. Both turacin and turacoverdin are unusual in being built around copper, which the birds concentrate from their fruit diet.

To a degree, yes, and it startled early naturalists. Turacin, the crimson pigment in the wing feathers, is water-soluble, and if a captive turaco bathes vigorously or a wild one is caught in prolonged heavy rain, a faint pink or reddish tint can leach into the water and the wing colour can look temporarily washed-out or duller. The pigment is not completely rinsed away in one shower — it is bound within the feather — but the effect is real and repeatable, and it was one of the clues that led chemists to identify turacin as a distinct copper porphyrin in the 19th century. The green turacoverdin is more stable and does not wash out noticeably.

The grey go-away-bird and its relatives, the white-bellied go-away-bird and the bare-faced go-away-bird, are the drab, grey, savanna members of the turaco family, and they are named for their loud, drawn-out, nasal call, which sounds remarkably like a person saying "g'way" or "go away." These birds are conspicuous, sit up in the open on acacia tops, and call at the least disturbance, and their alarm calls alert impala, kudu, and other animals to approaching predators or hunters. Traditional hunters in parts of southern and eastern Africa regard them as a nuisance for exactly this reason, since a calling go-away-bird can spook the game. The green forest turacos have completely different, deeper, barking or growling calls.

Turacos are primarily fruit-eaters, and forest species in particular are almost entirely frugivorous, moving through the canopy in pairs or small groups and swallowing fruits whole, with a strong fondness for wild figs. Because they take large fruits, travel between fruiting trees, and pass the seeds intact, they are significant seed dispersers for many African rainforest tree species, some of which have few other animals large enough to swallow and move their seeds. The savanna go-away-birds and plantain-eaters have broader diets that include more leaves, flowers, buds, nectar, and some insects. Despite the name "plantain-eater," turacos do not specialise on bananas or plantains; the name comes from an old misidentification of the fruit in their diet.