Rainbow-Billed Toucan: The Flying Banana

This is Bird Note.

Some birds seem like they came straight out of the mind of a cartoonist.

The Kielbilt toucan, also known as a rainbow-built 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

bell.

These tropical beauties flutter colors from the jungles of southern Mexico to Venezuela.

Their songs set the mood at Mayan Archaeological Ruins like those of Calacmoule in Mexico.

In Belize, the Kielbilt toucan is so cherished that they name the species their national bird

when they gained independence in 1981.

The rainbow-built toucan feeds mostly on fruits.

They home 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 six to thirty birds.

And when living together creates some friction, they use their beak as swords and dulyck.

Those big beaks aren't just for fighting though.

All the blocks 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 bird note, I'm Lucina Melisio.