Toco toucan

Scientific name: Rhamphastos toco

Country: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname

Continent: South America

Diet: Fruit - frugivore, insects - insectivore, nestlings, lizards

Food & feeding: Omnivore

Habitats: Tropical rainforest

Conservation status: Not threatened

Relatives: Toucanet

Description: The Toco toucan is the largest of the toucans, being about 60 cm long and weighing 700 grammes. It is an very attractive bird, mainly black with a dusky brown throat and white upper breast. The upper tail coverts are white, the under tail is crimson. But it is the beak that everyone remembers the toucan for. In this species the beak can be 20 cm long and is yellow with a red keel and a large dark spot towards the tip. Despite the bright colours and bold pattern (or perhaps because of them), when the bird is sitting still in the dappled light of the forest, it is very hard to spot. The Toco toucan is well known as the 'Guinness' bird in the Guiness advertising campaigns.

Lifestyle: It spends most of its time in fruiting trees, high up in the canopy of the forest. The beak is thought to be an adaptation for reaching fruits at the end of fine branches that cannot support the weight of the bird. When a fruit is plucked off, the toucan throws back its head, deftly swallowing the fruit as it does so. It will also feed on insects and unguarded bird nestlings. When asleep, the bill is rested along the bird's back, to take the weight off its neck!

Family & friends: Toucans spend time in loose flocks of around six birds, searching for fruiting trees.

Keeping in touch: They are noisy, producing a monotonous call that can be heard several hundred metres away through the forest.

Growing up: Toucans are tree-hole nesting birds and like many hole-nesting species, the eggs are white in colour and the chicks when they hatch are not well developed; they are not feathered and have closed eyes (called altricial). The incubation period lasts around two weeks and the chicks' eyes open three weeks after hatching. The young fledge the nest after a further three weeks.

When courting, male and female toucans may toss fruits to each other, throwing and catching them in their beaks.

Conservation news: Toucans are not listed as endangered in the wild, but there is a trade in live animals for pets and as cage birds. Removal of dead trees from the forest for firewood also threatens their nesting sites.