The Keel-Billed Toucan    
      Keel-Billed Toucan
Genus: Ramphastos (R.)
R. Species: Sulfuratus		    
    Description!    
    A Kell-Billed Toucan having it's juicy dinner      
       
      The Keel-Billed Toucans other common name is "Bill Bird". This is because of its huge bill. The Toucans bill comes in all sorts of colours, from green, to yellow, to orange, to red, and finally, black. Its bill is 1/3 (one third) of its body's length. The Toucan itself is 50 cm (20 inches) long. (Under the heading food, there is an interesting fact on how it uses its bill. Look out for it)!
It also has very good eye sight so it can spot and tell apart enemies and friends. It has soft and fragile green skin around its eyes.
The Toucan has 4 toes on each foot: 2 that go foward, and 2 that go backwards. This is designed to give it better grip on branches and trees.		    
       
    Keel-Billed Toucan (Above) A Toucan feeding on a delicious fruit up in its home, the canopy.      
       
     
    Food!    
     
    The Keel-Billed Toucan has many eating habits, or should I say it has a large variety of food to choose from. I guess it all depends on what it can find. First of all, it loves all sorts of the many kinds of tropical fruits from the rainforest. One out of its many favourites is the banana passion-fruit. To eat a berry or peice of fruit the Toucan holds its bill with the berry in it up in the air, tosses the berry and catches it wth its bill and then swallows the fruit whole. Apart from fruits, the Toucan likes to eat the eggs of younger, and defenceless birds, little juicy insects, and last but not least, reptiles like snakes and lizards.    
     
    Habitat!    
       
    The Keel-Billed Toucan can be found in South America from South Mexico to Northern Columbia, but mainly in Belize which is an independent Commonwealth country. It is also the national bird of Belize . The Keel-Billed Toucan is a canopy dwellar and spends most of its time in the trees. It can mainly be found round the forest borders.The Toucan can also be found in lowland forest.

This diagram illustrates the layers of the rainforest. The Keel-Billed Toucan lives in the middle layer, the canopy.

    
     
    Adaptations!    
     
    An adaptation that the Keel-Billed Toucan has made is that it adapted to being a fruit eater. Or it may have been a fruit eater already, but it may have had to adapt to the forest's sweet fruit. One of the consequences of becoming a fruit eater is that it would have had to find a way to reach the fruit; a long, but light beak. A perfect adaptation. The bill is long, and it is light. The Toucans bill is made out of the same material that our nails are made out of- Keratin. So that is another adaptation that the Toucan has made. As you may have read under the heading Description, the Toucan has 4 toes on each foot : 2 that go foward and 2 that go backwards. This helps it cling on to trees, branches and any other perching spots.

    
    Bibliography  
    Notes  
  Information collected by Gabor Hellyer. For any comments please click on my name and e-mail me.

Page Designed By Gabor Hellyer, 15 June 2000

Credits: Paul Hellyer

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