Keel-billed Toucan
Ramphastos sulfuratus

Also known as sulfur-breasted toucans, keel-billed toucans are easily recognized by their eye-catching plumage and huge, colorful bill. Their enormous beaks are actually hollow and lightweight, and useful for plucking and swallowing fruit. Social and playful, these birds are some of the noisiest in the jungle, with croak-like calls that can be heard nearly half a mile away.

What They Eat
Keel-billed toucans are mostly frugivorous. They eat fruits and seeds. In Belize, toucans consume fruits from fig, trumpet tree, copal, wild cherry and bread nut. They frequent the trumpet and fig trees almost twice as often as the other tree types. They use their dexterous bills to pick the fruit, then toss their head back and swallow it whole.

Keel-billed toucans also supplement their diets with occasional animal protein from snakes, small lizards and insects such as beetles, cicadas and ants. They also sometimes prey on eggs and nestlings of smaller birds.

Where They Live
Keel-billed toucans make their homes in the holes of trees, often living in tight quarters with several family members sharing one hole. They can be found in the canopies of subtropical and lowland rainforests from southern Mexico to Venezuela and Columbia.

What They Do
Toucans live and travel in flocks of 6-12 birds. If tree cavities are limited, families conserve space by tucking in their tails and beaks and crowding into the same hole. Females lay one to four eggs and both parents take turns incubating the eggs. Toucans are poor flyers and move mostly by hopping from branch to branch in trees.

How They’re Doing
Although numbers might be declining, the IUCN Red List status of the keel-billed toucan is assessed as Least Concern because of the large population size and large range. Some local populations are in decline because of habitat loss, and from being hunted and taken as pets.

Keel-billed Toucan

Keel-billed toucans are common in the country of Belize and have been chosen as the country’s national bird.

Toucans are often compared to another family of tropical birds, the hornbills, but they are actually close relatives of woodpeckers!

Despite his rainbow-colored beak and love for fruit, “Toucan Sam”, the cartoon character used to advertise Fruit Loops cereal, most closely resembles a keel-billed toucan. Originally, he was modeled after a toco toucan.  

  

Keel-billed Toucan

Helpful hints for viewing the animals

Look for our keel-billed toucan on the Tropics Trail in the South American Bird Aviary.

Things you can do

Think twice about the things you buy. Don’t buy products that come from endangered or threatened species.

If you buy a rare or exotic bird, find out where it came from, so you can be sure that it was bred, kept, and sold humanely. Ask for paperwork that demonstrates it was legally acquired. Don’t forget that birds may also be available from animal shelters and rescue groups.

Your visit to the Zoo helps support our conservation programs. You can also sponsor an animal at the Zoo.

 

 

Keel-billed Toucan

The main threat to these toucans is the loss of their rainforest habitat. Hunting for meat and feathers for ornamental purposes continues to be a problem as well. Keel-billed toucans used to be highly sought after for the pet trade, but captive breeding for this purpose has greatly decreased the number of wild birds being captured.

Things the Zoo's Done/Doing

In zoos, keel-billed toucans are managed under the Keel-billed Toucan Species Survival Plan (SSP) to increase successful breeding and improve the genetics of the captive population. The Minnesota Zoo continues to try to successfully breed Keel-billed toucans and hopes to add young toucans to the SSP soon.

Conservation Notes

The rapid destruction of their rainforest habitat poses a threat, but this species of toucan is not currently considered endangered.

Keel-billed Toucan

Colorful from head to toe, the keel-billed toucan is a well-known symbol of the tropics. It has a black body, pale green eye patches, a yellow throat and chest, red feathers on the underside of its tail, and pale blue feet and toes. It is most recognized, however, for its oversized rainbow-colored beak, which appears quite heavy and cumbersome, is actually composed of lightweight keratin, similar to human fingernails. The beak is hollow and filled with air, except for a thin honeycomb of spongy bone providing support. Males of this species are generally larger than females, especially in the size and length of the bill.

Habitat and Range
The keel-billed toucan is found in lowland tropical and sub-tropical rainforests from southern Mexico, through Central America, and into parts of Venezuela and Columbia. With labored bursts of flapping followed by a glide, keel-billed toucans may look graceful in flight, but they are not good long distance flyers. Instead, they prefer to hop around on branches in the upper canopy looking for food.

Similar Species
In the wild, the keel-billed often shares habitat with the larger chestnut-mandibled toucan (Ramphastos swainsonii) which, after allowing keel-billed toucans to locate good feeding and nesting sites, may take advantage of their larger size and chase them away.

Diet
The keel-billed toucan’s diet consists mostly of fruit, arthropods, young birds, and occasionally small lizards and snakes. Their large bills are useful tools for plucking food items from smaller branches that would not be strong enough to support the weight of the bird. To eat, they grasp food with their long bills, toss their head back and swallow food whole. A long feathery tongue that runs the length of their beak helps flick food and fruit juices to the back of the throat.

Habits and Adaptations
Like many toucan species, keel-billed toucans tend to travel in flocks of 6 to 12 birds and are rarely seen alone. Flocks roost in the holes of tree trunks, sometimes with several birds occupying the same hole. When sleeping in their roosts, keel-billed toucans will fold their tails up over their backs and tuck their bills under their wings-essentially becoming a big ball of feathers to conserve space. When threatened, the entire group creates a noisy ruckus to scare off predators. Individuals may also use their large bills for self-defense.

Reproduction
Like their relatives the woodpeckers, toucans commonly nest in natural tree cavities or nests made by other birds. Females commonly lay a clutch of 1-4 glossy, white eggs with an incubation period of 17-19 days. After about 5-6 weeks the fledglings are able to leave the nest, though their bills will not be full grown for several more months. Keel-billed toucans form strong pair bonds and may have up to three clutches in a year. Both males and females take turns incubating the eggs.