Keel-billed Toucan

Ramphastos sulfuratusOrder: PICIFORMESFamily: Toucans (Ramphastidae)

Overview

Keel-billed Toucan: Large toucan that is all black with brilliant yellow face, throat and chest, and red vent. Very large bill is a colorful mix of green, orange, red, and blue. Sexes similar. Juvenile is sooty black with other colors muted, and shorter bill.

Range and Habitat

Keel-billed Toucan: Found from southern Mexico to Colombia. In Costa Rica common on Caribbean slope, but uncommon and local on northern Pacific Slope. Found in a wide variety of forests.

Listen:

Voice Text

"crrik crrik crrik"

Related Birds:

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Keel-billed Toucan

● Song: "crrik crrik crrik"

● Foraging & Feeding: Keel-billed Toucan: Up to 12 birds travel through the forest in loose groups in search of fruit and berries. Occasionally eats insects and small lizards. Uses long bill to grab and hold items, then swallows with quick upward flick of bill.

● Breeding & nesting: Keel-billed Toucan: Lays 2 to 4 glossy white eggs in cavity of large decayed or living tree, 9 to 90 feet above the ground, January to May. Both sexes share nesting duties. Eggs incubated 16 to 20 days, and young leave the nest in 8 to 9 weeks after their bills grow.

● Similar species: Keel-billed Toucan: The only other large toucan in Costa Rica is the larger Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, which has a yellow and maroon bill.

Flight Pattern

Active, flies with rapid wingbeats and short glides that create a strongly undulating flight

● Range & Habitat: Keel-billed Toucan: Found from southern Mexico to Colombia. In Costa Rica common on Caribbean slope, but uncommon and local on northern Pacific Slope. Found in a wide variety of forests.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationCommon

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight14 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of Central and South America