Chestnut Mandibled Toucan

ORDER: Piciformes

FAMILY: Ramphastidae

GENUS: Ramphastos

SPECIES: (ambiguus) Their enormously enlarged bills which are used for pl

DESCRIPTION:

Bill is bicolored with most of the upper mandible yellow, lower mandible and wedge-shaped area at base of upper mandible dark maroon-chestnut. Plumage is mostly black; rump white, under tail-coverts red, bare skin around eye yellowish green. Call is an almost gull-like repeated yelping ‘kee-yoo, tedick-tedick-tedick’.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE AND HABITAT:

Humid forest edge. Lowlands to 2000 meters in Central and nw South America (Honduras to western Equador).

DIET:

Primarily fruit and berries, but suplemented with large insects, small reptiles and amphibians, as well as the eggs and young of other birds.

LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL STRUCTURE:

Toucans are gregarious birds, usually seen in small flocks of 3 to 12 birds. Breeding is during the dry season. They nest in tree hollows. Incubation of the two to four eggs by both sexes lasts around 15 days. Young have particularly well-developed heel pads for shuffling about in the hard nest. These are lost by fledging at 40-50 days.

SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS:

Their enormously enlarged bills which are used for plucking and manipulating tree fruits are lighter and less awkward than they look since they are largely hollow. The bill is strengthened by a honeycomb network of bony fibres within the horny outer sheath.

Toucans commonly roost in tree holes. Due to an unusual muscular and bony attachment the tail can be folded over the bird’s back so that the tip lies beside the head and space is saved.

INTERPRETIVE INFORMATION::

Also known as Swainson’s Toucan. In Costa Rica they have been seen to take advantage of the slightly smaller Keel-Billed Toucan; the larger bird follows the smaller, then chases the smaller away after it succeeds in locating a fruit-filled tree.

All toucans are commonly known in many areas of the Neotropics as “Dios te de” (God gives it to you) because the three syllable call of the Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan sounds like this expression.

Small fruit seeds pass unharmed through toucan digestive tracts and large seeds are regurgitated; thus these frugivores aid in the dispersal of tree seeds.

OUR ANIMALS:

1 Male. 1 Female.

STATUS IN THE WILD:

Not listed as threatened or endangered, but they have suffered substantial population declines in heavily deforested areas of Central America, e.g. some regions of Panama.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Brooke, Michael & Birkhead, Tim. 1991. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology. Cambridge University, p. 114.
2. Beletsky, Les. 1998. Internet. Excerpted from Costa Rica: the Ecotravellers’ Wildlife Guide. Academic Press.
3. Sibley & Monroe. 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, p.71.
4. Ridgeley, Robert. 1976. A Guide to the Birds of Panama. Princeton University Press, NJ, pp 182-4.