Information about Toucan

Toucan

Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Aves
Order:Piciformes
Family:Ramphastidae
Vigors, 1825
Genera


Andigena
Aulacorhynchus
Pteroglossus
Ramphastos
Selenidera


Toucans are near passerine birds from the neotropics. They are brightly marked and have enormous, colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species.

Toucans range in size from the Lettered Aracari (Pteroglossus inscriptus), at 130 g (4.6 oz) and 29 cm (11.5 inches), to the Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco), at 680 g (1.5 lb) and 63 cm (25 inches). Their bodies are short (of comparable size to a crow's) and thick. The tail is rounded, and varies in length from half the length to the whole length of the body. The neck is short and thick, and at the base of the head is a huge, brightly-colored beak that measures, in some large species, more than half the length of the body. A toucan's tongue is long, narrow, grey, and singularly frayed on each side, adding to its sensitivity as an organ of taste.

The legs of a toucan are strong and rather short. Their toes are arranged in pairs with the first and fourth toes turned backward. Males and females are the same color. The feathers in the genus containing the largest toucans are generally black, with touches of white, yellow, and scarlet. The underparts of the araçaris (smaller toucans) are yellow, crossed by one or more black or red bands, and the edges of the beak are saw-toothed. The toucanets have mostly green plumage with blue markings.

Toucans are frugivorous (fruit-eating), but will take prey such as insects and small lizards. However, the function of the beak in feeding is not known, since many other birds consume these foods without the giant bill to help them. One likely use is to specialize on prey such as nestlings and bats in treeholes. In this view, the beak allows the bird to reach deep into the treehole to access food unavailable to other birds.

They are arboreal and nest in tree holes laying 2–4 white eggs. The young hatch completely naked, without any down. Toucans are resident breeders and do not migrate. Toucans are usually found in pairs or small flocks.

The name of this bird group is derived from Tupi tucana, via French.

Enlarge picture
Two Toco Toucans

Systematic list

Toucans in fiction

  • A humorous derivation of the name of the bird features in David McKee's children's book "Two Can Toucan".
  • Wulffmorgenthaler comic strip features a character named 'Toucan kid', who is an offspring of a human and a toucan.
  • Tookie Tookie, George's pet Toucan from George of the Jungle.
  • The character Lupe Toucan from My Gym Partner's a Monkey
  • In , the Wizzrobe, a magician-like monster that dates back to the first game for the NES, highly resembles a slightly anthropomorphic toucan, possessing the brightly colored beak, and wing-like sleeves on its robe.
  • A joke in the Emperor's New School. "If you can speak toucan, can you also speak threecan and fourcan?"
  • "Toucan Sam" from the Froot Loops cereal
  • Señor Tucán, the Spanish-speaking toucan from the American cartoon Dora the Explorer.

External links

R. sulfuratus

Binomial name
Ramphastos sulfuratus
Lesson, 1830

The Keel-billed Toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus), also known as Sulfur-breasted Toucan,
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Piciformes
Meyer & Wolf, 1810

Families
Galbulidae
Bucconidae
Capitonidae
Ramphastidae
Picidae
Indicatoridae
For prehistoric taxa, see text

Six families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes
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Nicholas Aylward Vigors (1785 – October 26, 1840) was an Irish zoologist and politician.

Vigors was born at Old Leighlin, County Carlow. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford. He served in the army during the Peninsular War from 1809 to 1811.
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Genera was an operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It was essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI. The ~1.
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Andigena
Gould, 1851

Species

4, see text

Andigena is a genus of birds in the Ramphastidae family.

It contains the following species:
  • Plate-billed Mountain-toucan (Andigena laminirostris)

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Aulacorhynchus

Aulacorhynchus is a genus of bird in the Ramphastidae family. With a total length of 30-40 cm (12-16 in), they are relatively small toucans, and all are mainly green.
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Pteroglossus
Illiger, 1811

Species

14 (incl. the Saffron Toucanet), see text.

The aracaris (sometimes araçaris) are medium-sized toucans in the genus Pteroglossus.
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Ramphastos
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

See text.

Ramphastos is a genus of toucans, tropical and subtropical near passerine birds from Central and South America, which are brightly marked and have enormous, often colourful, bills.
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Selenidera
Gould, 1837

Species

5-7, see text

Selenidera is a bird genus containing five to seven species of dichromatic toucanets in the toucan family Ramphastidae.
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Near passerine or higher land-bird assemblage are terms often given to arboreal birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) due to ecological similarities; the group corresponds to some extent with the Anomalogonatae of
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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In biogeography, Neotropic or Neotropical refers to one of the world's eight terrestrial ecozones.

This ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant
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The beak, bill or rostrum is an external anatomical structure of birds which, in addition to eating, is used for grooming, manipulating objects, killing prey, probing for food, courtship, and feeding their young.
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genus (plural: genera) is part of the Latinized name for an organism. It is a name which reflects the classification of the organism by grouping it with other closely similar organisms.
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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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R. toco

Binomial name
Ramphastos toco
Statius Muller, 1776

The Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco) is the largest and arguably best known species in the toucan family.
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Corvus
Linnaeus, 1758

Species

See text.
The true crows are large passerine birds that comprise the genus Corvus. Ranging in size from the relatively small pigeon-sized jackdaws (Eurasian and Daurian) to the Common Raven of the
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Pteroglossus
Illiger, 1811

Species

14 (incl. the Saffron Toucanet), see text.

The aracaris (sometimes araçaris) are medium-sized toucans in the genus Pteroglossus.
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A frugivore is an animal that feeds primarily or less commonly exclusively on fruit. This method of feeding can be more efficient than consuming the stem, roots, or other vegetative portions of a plant, due to higher concentrations of sugars, vitamins or proteins that many plants
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predation describes a biological interaction where a predator organism feeds on another living organism or organisms known as prey.[1] Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them.
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Insecta
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders
Subclass Apterygota
* Archaeognatha (bristletails)
* Thysanura (silverfish)
Subclass Pterygota
* Infraclass Paleoptera (Probably paraphyletic)

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Lacertilia*
Günther, 1867

Families

Many, see text.

Lizards are reptiles of the order Squamata, normally possessing four legs, external ear openings and movable eyelids.
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BAT may refer to:
  • Baby AT, a variant of the AT form factor
  • Bangor Area Transit
  • B.A.T., "Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters", a 1990 computer game
  • Batch file, ".BAT", MS-DOS, OS/2, and Windows shell programs
  • BAT (G.I.

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Arboreal is a word meaning "related to or resembling trees". Its meaning comes from the Latin arbor, meaning tree.

In biology, an arboreal animal is one which inhabits or spends large amounts of time in trees or bushes.
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In most birds and reptiles, an egg (Latin ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo.
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For the record label, see Duck Down Records
The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down.
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