Toucans The Birds with Large Beaks by Vincent Apostolico

For this month's blog post I decided to go in a different direction this time to talk about a certain species of animals instead of my golfing life as I'm sure I have already exhausted you all with the topic of golf from the months prior. Ever since I have seen this bird for the first time, I have always found a growing interest in this specimen of birds as I have been very fascinated with its many great qualities and cool actions these birds are able to perfect. That bird is of course the toucan.

One of the first really fascinating qualities of toucans that always grab people's attention is their extremely long beak. The average length of a toucan's beak is 7.5 inches and it accounts for 1/3 of its total length. Their beaks can come in a variety of colors, most commonly orange, yellow, and green, and the colors can be used as camouflage in the forest that the live in. Not only is the beak colorful, but it can be used to perform many helpful tasks toucans need to fulfill in order to live healthy lives. First, toucans can use their long beaks to collect fruit and other prey as their food sources. The beak can be used to help pluck fruit from plants and to peel fruit the toucan obtains. One cool thing that a toucan can do with a piece of fruit that is too big to consume is they will throw up the piece of fruit and catch it with its beak each time to help break down the fruit into a smaller portion until it is small enough to be digested. Within a toucan's beak is a flat tongue that is relatively the same length as its beak and the tongue is very helpful in collecting its prey like insects, frogs, and reptiles. Another function of the beak that is very well utilized by toucans regulating their body temperatures through it. A toucan can adjust their blood flow to their beak to increase or decrease the amount of heat released from it. If there is more blood flow towards the beak, then more heat is released to help cool its body down. It's not only cool that toucans have the ability to do this but how fast they can do this and cause a dramatic shift in temperature. A toucan can change its body temperature up to about 18 degrees Fahrenheit within a few minutes. They can quickly adapt to the conditions surrounding their environment without having any major setbacks which is really beneficial in the long run. The beak overall can account from 5% to almost 100% of the total heat lost from the toucan. One cool thing that toucans do to preserve heat and warmth when they are sleeping is they will tuck their beaks under their feathers. 

Toucans are only found within Central and South America and there is no preference for a certain habitat with them so they can live in a variety of different habitats. This actually can lead to an advantage over other animals as they would not be affected as a whole from destruction of certain habitats like rain forests. As a result of this, toucans have been listed as one of the species with the least concern of becoming endangered or extinct. Toucans do not normally live on their own as they live and travel in flocks which contain around 6 birds each. These flocks nest together within tree holes and within them the toucans will lay eggs. Toucans averagely lay 2 to 4 eggs a year. When the young toucans are hatched out of their eggs, their beaks aren't as big as they are when they are adults but the beak grows to full size within a few months making it a fast adaptation to adulthood. 

Toucans have been a species of animals that I have been so fascinated with and I hope you all learned a fun fact or two about these amazing birds.