A photo from Steve Rooke‘s recent tour to the Roof of Africa:

Prince Ruspoli's Turaco

Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco (or simply “Ruspoli’s Turaco” in the more egalitarian parlance of the IOC’s recommended English names) is a colorful and greatly sought-after Ethiopian endemic, found only around Arero, Bobela, Sokora, Neghelli, and Wadera. Happily, though it is at present considered rare and endangered, there is some indication that this species is tolerant of human disturbance, and it may be more common than once thought.

But who was Prince Ruspoli? Eugenio Ruspoli was a princely botanist active in Ethiopia towards the end of the nineteenth century; Salvadori, the most important Italian ornithologist of the day, named this extravagantly coiffed species three years after the 27-year-old prince was trampled to death by an African elephant he had wounded.