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Rainbow-Billed Toucan: The Flying Banana
These birds look like they came from the mind of a cartoonist
© Doug Greenberg
The Keel-billed Toucan, also known as the Rainbow-billed Toucan, looks like a bird with a giant banana for a beak. They have a black body, a yellow patch from the face to the breast, and a huge rainbow-colored bill. The big beaks have more than one use: they can be used for fighting with rivals, but they can also help toucans regulate their body temperature in the tropical heat.
Listen to this show in Spanish here.
Rainbow-Billed Toucan: The Flying Banana
By Paula Vilella
BirdNote®
This is BirdNote.
[Keel-billed Toucan duet]
Some birds seem like they came straight out of the mind of a cartoonist. The Keel-billed Toucan, also known as the Rainbow-billed Toucan, looks like a bird with a giant banana for a beak.
[Keel-billed Toucan song]
They have a black body, a yellow patch from the face to the breast, and a huge rainbow-colored bill.
These tropical beauties flaunt their colors from the jungles of southern Mexico to Venezuela. Their songs set the mood at Mayan archaeological ruins, like those of Calakmul in Mexico...
[Keel-billed Toucan song]
In Belize, the Keel-billed Toucan is so cherished that they named the species their national bird when they gained independence in 1981.
The Rainbow-Billed Toucan feeds mostly on fruits. They hold them with their beaks, tilt their heads backward, and chomp down!
These toucans aren’t skilled at flying, preferring to hop from branch to branch. They don't like being alone, either: they move in groups of 6 to 30 birds.
And when living together creates some friction... they use their beaks as swords in dueling.
Those big beaks aren’t just for fighting, though. All the blood flowing through the beak helps toucans regulate their body temperature in the tropical heat. So there’s more than one way to use that impressive beak.
For BirdNote, I'm Lucina Melesio.
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Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Keel-billed Toucan ML514941 recorded by Josep del Hoyo, and Keel-billed Toucan ML83885881 recorded by Jay McGowan.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote February 2024
Narrator: Lucina Melesio
ID# KBTO-01-2024-02-13 KBTO-01
