Toucans huh, BIRD FACTS INCOMING! :DD
While all birds above have similar characteristics like playing a major role in seed distribution, and each having their colourful designs, all of these birds are different species!
These four birds featured above are, fiery billed aracari, a rhinoceros hornbill, a toco toucan and a guianan toucanet; can you tell which one doesn’t belong? It’s the hornbill!! :}. Hornbills (despite their appearance) are not closely related to any other bird above, evolving away from toucans approximately 50 million years ago. Hornbills are from the order Bucerotiformes, while toucans (as well as aracaris and toucanets), are in the order of Piciformes.
Let’s talk a bit about them, shall we? :3
The beaks found on all four of these birds is actually hollow, causing the beaks to be extremely light. The beaks serve many purposes such as, releasing excess heat, being used to make their iconic call of which toucans are named after, and mating, but the size and toughness of the beaks actually allow them to defend against predators, and crack open large nuts. With the beak being made of keratin, the beaks will continue growing as their lifespan increases, the birds trim and clean their beaks regularly to prevent parasites, germs and to prevent a case were they cannot eat.
Toucans live in central and South America, populating rainforests. As I said before toucans play a major role in seed distribution, being some of the only animals in the rainforests helping to spread and diversify the forest. They primarily eat bugs and fruit found on the ground as they are poor flyers. Toucans being a vital and irreplaceable part of the ecosystem.
Some of the prettiest birds alive ☺️, but unfortunately a non insignificant amount of toucan species are endangered from deforestation. If I have stroke a cord within you with this text consider donating to organizations helping to fight deforestation! (unfortunately my expertise only goes so far, so you will have to find a charity for yourself)
To anyone who got this far thank you for listening to me, I hope you learned something :D
(I got to see a toucanet when Irratino sent me to Mexico for an occult assignment, it was awesome!) (I blame you, Logico, for this)
