Tauraco macrorhynchus (Fraser, 1839)

Scientific Classification

The yellow-billed turaco, scientifically named Tauraco macrorhynchus, is a bird species that belongs to the Musophagidae family.

Distribution Range

Its distribution covers Angola, Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Subspecies Separation

The yellow-billed turaco's range is discontinuous, a split caused by the drier climate of the Dahomey Gap that separates two morphologically distinct subspecies: T. m. macrorhynchus, found from Sierra Leone to Ghana, and T. m. verreauxii, found from Nigeria through the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Angola.

Subspecies Taxonomy Proposal

Researchers have proposed that these two subspecies should be recognized as separate phylogenetic species, based on biogeography, morphology, and molecular phylogeny.

Genus Reclassification Proposal

It has also been proposed that the entire species should be moved to the genus Musophaga, because phylogenetic analyses do not recover it clustering with other Tauraco species.