Keel-billed Toucan

Look for Keel-billed Toucans in the canopies of tall trees and along the river at Better in Belize. If you know what to listen for, you can often hear their call, a frog-like “crrikk, crrikk, crrikk,” about one croak per second. Being social birds, they usually forage in the trees in flocks of two to several birds. Listen to a toucan call here.  

The toucan’s bill is made of spongy light-weight bone covered with brightly-colored fingernail-like keratin, which makes it light enough that it doesn’t drag the bird head-down during flight. Toucans are quite large, up to 22” long, about one-third of which is bill.

Like the parrots, toucans have zygodactyl feet, with two toes facing forward and two toes facing backward. This makes them extremely agile in the trees, where they climb around looking for seeds, fruit, eggs, nestling birds, insects and lizards. They snap up food with the tip of the beak, toss it up, then grab it out of the air closer to their face where the tongue can rake it into the gullet. More information can be found here.