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Treasures of the Tropical Rainforest |
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Toucans |
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Toucans have large brightly-colored beaks that are adapted for fruit-eating.They are poor fliers because of the size of their beaks, and they rely on hopping from branch to branch in trees. |
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Toucans live in the canopy of the rainforest. They don't live nests, they live in tree trunks. |
They lay one to four eggs and the parent birds take turns incubating the eggs. They also use their beaks to scare away small birds so that they can steal the eggs of other birds. |
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The toucan's body is anywhere from 13 to 25 inches long, slightly longer than their beaks. Their bodies are usually colored with black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green feathers. The most obvious characteristic of the toucan is the huge yellow, orange, red, green and black bill. Their bill it is hollow and very light. |
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Toucans eat primarily fruit. Toucans will also eat insects, lizards, snakes and even the eggs of smaller birds. |
The Keel-billed Toucan is the national bird of Belize. |
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