Animal · Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay
Toco toucan
Ramphastos toco — the name this animal has in the language scientists everywhere share.
The toco toucan has the largest beak of any bird relative to its body size, a bright orange tool it uses for reaching fruit. It lives in the rainforests and woodlands of South America.
Picture credit: Bernard DUPONT (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Bernard DUPONT (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Giles Laurent (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where does the toco toucan live?
Home: Rainforests and woodlands of South America.
In the wild you find it in: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia.
Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.
The short profile
Fully grown it measures 55–65 cm long, including a 17–19 cm bill. It weighs about 0.6 kilograms. On the menu: both plants and meat.
The story behind it
A toco toucan's giant beak looks heavy but is actually very light, made of a honeycomb of bone covered in a thin layer of keratin, the same material as human fingernails. Scientists have found the beak also helps the bird lose heat, working almost like a built-in radiator on hot days. Toucans eat mostly fruit, plucking it with the tip of their beak and tossing it back into their throat, but they also raid other birds' nests for eggs and chicks. They nest in tree holes rather than building their own nest, and several birds sometimes squeeze into one hollow to sleep, folding their beak under a wing. Toco toucans remain common across much of their range.
Find it on the globe
Toco toucan is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
Why does a toucan have such a big beak?
A toucan's huge beak helps it reach fruit at the end of thin branches without needing to balance its whole body there. It also acts like a radiator, releasing extra body heat through blood vessels near the surface to help the bird cool down.
Is a toucan's beak heavy?
No, a toucan's beak is surprisingly light because it is made of a spongy honeycomb of bone covered by a thin, hard layer of keratin. This lightweight structure lets the toucan carry a huge beak without it weighing the bird down.
What do toucans eat?
Toucans mostly eat fruit, which they pluck with their long beak and flick into their throat. They also eat insects and sometimes raid other birds' nests to steal eggs or chicks.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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