City - Vara Blanca State - ALAJUELA Country - Costa Rica
About
Ramphastos sulfuratus.
CAPTIVE.
From La Paz Waterfalls Gardens Aviary.
Perhaps more than any other kind of bird, toucans symbolize the American tropics. With an outrageous boat-shaped, colorful bill almost equal in length to its body, the toucan silhouette is instantly recognizable. Toucan comes from tucano, the name used by Topi Indians in Brazil. Altogether, there are 59 species in the family Ramphastidae, including toucans, aracaris, toucanets, and New World barbets, all Neotropical. Six species of tucans inhabit the forest of Costa RIca. Their anatomy and DNA indicate a close alliance with woodpeckers ( and thus they are in the same order , piciformes). Toucans are primarily frugivores, taking a wide variety of fruits from many genera, including Cecropia and Ficus. The long bill may be adaptive in permitting the relative heavy toucan to reach out and clip fruits from branch tips, which its weight would otherwise prohibit. In addition to fruits and berries, toucans eat insects, spiders, lizards, snakes, and nestling birds and eggs, all of which contain more protein than fruit.
From A Neotropical Companion by John Kricher, 1997.
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