Toucans | Ramphastidae

Toekans | Toucans | Tucanes

Thirty-two species in five genera live in the area of this guide: the large toucans of the genus Ramphastos, the slimmer, group-living aracaris of the lowlands, the green toucanets of the genus Aulacorhynchus in foothill and cloud forest, the grey-blue mountain-toucans of the genus Andigena high in the Andean forest and the small Selenidera toucanets, whose males have a yellow ear patch. The huge, often brightly coloured bill is lighter than it looks: beneath a thin horny sheath lies a spongy network of bony struts filled with air. With it they reach fruit on slender twigs that would not bear their weight, and the richly supplied bill also helps to shed heat. The cutting edges are serrated and the tongue is long, narrow and frayed at the edges like a feather. The foot is zygodactyl. Toucans eat mainly fruit, which they swallow with a toss of the head, but also insects, lizards and the eggs and young of other birds. The voice is hardly musical: croaking, rasping or yelping calls that carry far. They sleep in tree holes with the tail folded over the back, and aracaris share a roost hole as a whole group. The nest is a cavity in a tree, often an old woodpecker hole, with two to four white eggs.