Cuckoos, Roadrunner, and Turacos in North America

This group came out disappointingly low overall. The Greater Roadrunner and a couple turacos were widespread, but many species are barely present.

As normal only information from June 2016 forward was used, and corrections and updates welcome.

 

Cuckoos


Guira

Guira Cuckoo (15-17 holders)

Bronx
Buttonwood Park
Cincinnati
Dallas World Aquarium
Fresno Chaffee
Houston
Jacksonville
Lincoln Park
National?
National Aviary
Philadelphia
San Antonio
San Francisco
Sedgwick County
Sequoia Park?
St Louis
Tracy Aviary


Geococcyx

Greater Roadrunner (20 holders)

Abilene
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Brookfield
California Living Museum
California Science Center
Chattanooga
CuriOdyssey
El Paso
Fort Worth
Lee Richardson
Living Coast Discovery Center
Living Desert
Los Angeles
Oklahoma City
Phoenix
Sacramento
Staten Island
Stone
ZooAmerica


Coua

Crested Coua (12 holders)

Bronx
Cincinnati
Indianapolis
Memphis
National Aviary
Sacramento
San Antonio
San Diego
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Sedgwick County
Toledo
Tulsa


Phaenicophaeus

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha (7 holders)

Bronx
Cincinnati
San Diego
Toledo
Tracy Aviary
Virginia
Zoo Miami


Coccyzus

Black-billed Cuckoo (1 holder)

Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary

 

Turacos


Corythaeola

Great Blue Turaco (9 holders)

Bronx
Dallas World Aquarium
Fort Worth
Houston
Nashville
San Diego
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
SeaWorld San Diego
Sedgwick County


Criniferoides

White-bellied Go-away-bird (4-5 holders)

Houston?
Idaho Falls
National Aviary
San Diego
Sedgwick County


Crinifer

Western Plantain-Eater (4 holders)

Dallas
Nashville
Safari West
San Francisco


Gallirex

Purple-crested Turaco (1 holder)

San Antonio


Tauraco

Schalow’s Turaco (1 holder)

Sedgwick County

Hartlaub’s Turaco (2 holders)

Caldwell
Houston

Livingstone’s Turaco (1 holder)

Santa Barbara

Fischer’s Turaco (3 holders)

Cameron Park
Dallas World Aquarium
Houston

Green Turaco (5 holders)

Bloedel Conservatory
Bronx
Dallas
Safari West
Wildlife World

White-cheeked Turaco (15 holders)

Brookfield
Dallas
Dickerson Park
Fort Worth
Gladys Porter
Henry Vilas
Idaho Falls
Los Angeles
Minnesota
National Aviary
Oregon
Safari West
Toronto
Turtle Back
Wildlife World

Red-crested Turaco (8 holders)

Brevard
Brookfield
Capron Park
Central Park
Franklin Park
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Sedgwick County
St Augustine Alligator Farm

White-crested Turaco (4 holders)

Brevard
Cleveland
Dallas World Aquarium
Los Angeles


Musophaga

Ross’ Turaco (14-16 holders)

Bronx?
Buffalo
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dallas
Dallas World Aquarium?
Franklin Park
Houston
Lee Richardson
Los Angeles
Minnesota
San Antonio
San Francisco
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Scovill

Violet Turaco (21 holders)

Brevard
Brookfield
Capron Park
Dallas
Detroit
Fort Worth
Franklin Park
Jacksonville
Lincoln Park
Los Angeles
Milwaukee
Rosamond Gifford
San Antonio
Safari West
Sedgwick County
Staten Island
Timbavati Wildlife Park
Topeka
Toronto
Tracy Aviary
Zoo Boise

 

As far as I know, St Louis does not keep Guira Cuckoo.

 

Is this the only individual in captivity?

 

I'd expect there's some rescues scattered around... the species is common enough throughout a large portion of the US. However, that is the only holder I turned up searching zoo websites and digging through Zoochat. The only photo of a captive individual in the Zoochat gallery is your own, taken at Bay Beach. The only other photo in the gallery is a wild bird in Ecuador.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo, not a single holder to be found. Only one older photo of a wild bird to be found in the gallery. Considering both species are fairly common birds across the eastern half of the US, I would have thought a scattering of rescued Black-bill and Yellow-bill was reasonable. Didn't expect very many, but didn't think I'd come up almost empty-handed.

 

I'll help! I might list some species already listed, so for that I do apologize.

Bird Kingdom in Niagara Falls houses White Cheeked, Violet, and Green Turaco (of the Buffoni subspecies, possibly the only one in North America!). They also have a Red Crested Turaco, but possibly not for much longer

Discovery Cove in Orlando houses lots of species on this list, they have the following:

Guira Cuckoo
Greater Roadrunner
Crested Coua
White Cheeked Turaco
Green Turaco
Guinea Turaco
Lady Ross Turaco
Purple Crested Turaco

Either Seaworld Orlando or Discovery Cove also have at least one Blue Turaco off display.

Houston has Red Crested Turaco and Greater Roadrunner as well, and I don't believe they have Hartlaubs anymore. Can confirm they have White Bellied Go-Away-Bird as well.

San Antonio houses Great Blue Turaco.

Miami has Livingstone's Turaco.

Seaworld San Diego and Dallas both house Malkoha

 

Thanks!

Any guess whether Seaworld or Discovery has the Great Blue?

Green and Guinea are both Tauraco persa, that would be a subspecies designation then?

 

Is there just one species of roadrunner? Omaha has them, and I'm pretty sure Dallas did as well. I don't fully remember seeing them there but I do remember going to Fort Worth the next day and thinking theirs were more active than the ones I saw the day before.

 

There's two, the greater and lesser, however the captive population is founded virtually entirely by rescue birds, and as such is all greater. Lessers are a southern species, they don't come up into the states.

 

No, there are two, Greater (G. californianus) and Lesser (G. velox). Lesser However, I have never heard of Lesser Roadrunner being kept in the US or Canada.

 

Greater Roadrunner: Houston Zoo, San Antonio Zoo

Red-Billed Malkoha: Both San Diego Zoo and Miami Zoo keep this species bts

White-Bellied Go-Away-Bird: Houston Zoo

Western Plantain-Eater: Houston Zoo, Wildlife World Zoo

Red-Crested Turaco: Bronx Zoo, Houston Zoo, Wildlife World Zoo

White-Crested Turaco: Houston Zoo, Wildlife World Zoo

Ross' Turaco: Bronx Zoo, Southwick's Zoo, Wildlife World Zoo

Violet Turaco: Central Florida Zoo, Gladys Porter Zoo, Houston Zoo, Wildlife World Zoo

~Thylo

 

Just looked at The Photo Ark database and found the only pictures of C. erythropthalmus are taken at Bay Beach.

 

Sorry for being late to the party, but I have some updates I can add:

Can confirm that Sequoia Park has this species, as does Charles Paddock. However, Fresno doesn't seem to have them anymore.

North Carolina, Birmingham, Living Desert (New Mexico), Queens, Houston, Omaha, National Aviary, Cameron Park, and Albuquerque also hold this species.

 

North Carolina, Central Park, Dallas, Lee Richardson, and Moody Gardens also hold this species.

Also held by Palm Beach.

Memphis and Miami also hold this species.

 

Charles Paddock, Indianapolis, Omaha, and Sea World (not sure which one(s)) hold this species.

Busch Tampa, Tulsa, and Tracy Aviary hold this species.

Busch Tampa also holds this species.

Additionally: Livingstone's, Violaceous, White-cheeked, White-crested, and Red-crested are all held by Pinola Aviary in Shreveport, as is Crested Coua.

 

Sylvan Heights exhibits Guinea, Violet, and Red-crested turacos.

 

Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Busch Gardens Tampa, Denver, Fresno, and Bramble Park (SD) all hold this species too.

Additionally, the Bramble Park Zoo in South Dakota has Red-crested and White-cheeked Turacos (not listed on website, but Joel Sartore took pictures of them there copyrighted in 2019).

Binder Park, Busch Gardens Tampa, Gladys Porter, Lincoln Children's Zoo, Omaha, Philadelphia, Central Florida, and Woodland Park all hold this species as well.

And that pretty much completes my updates!

 

Roger Williams zoo has guira cuckoo.

 

Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo also holds Green Turaco.