The toco toucan might look like it wants to eat your Fruit Loops, but this bird only feasts on real fruits-plus a sprinkling of insects, spiders and lizards. In South American forests, the toucan uses its long bill with a jagged edge to grab fruit from the top of trees, and snag live prey. When not hunting, groups of these birds gather for a round of playtime, and they even groom each other to keep their feathers clean.
The Cutting Edge: The toco toucan's eight-inch long beak has serrated edges, similar to the blade of a steak knife. This helps the bird rip open the tough skin of some fruits, and even kill small animals, such as insects, lizards and even snakes.
Egg Thief: This bird can be tough. It uses its big bright bill to chase smaller birds out of their own nests. Once in, the toco toucan cracks open any eggs it finds and greedily gobbles up the insides.
What a Bill[]
This bird begins breakfast with a fresh orange.
The toco toucan's large beak looks heavy, and clumsy, but it's actually a handy tool. The beak is mostly hollow, and lined with tough, bony fibers inside, so it's strong and lightweight. Many of the berries and seeds the bird eats hang from tiny twigs that wouldn't support the toucan's weight, so the creature perches on a thicker branch nearby and stretches out with its bill to pluck these foods from the tree. The toucan can fly, but usually moves around the forest by hopping from branch to branch.
Playtime: The toco toucan is a social bird, and can often be found with up to 11 other of its kind. When not foraging, the bird likes to goof off. They often wrestle playfully with their beaks, and a male and female toss berries to each other before mating.
Holed Up: This bird doesn't build a nest. Instead, it searches among the highest parts of tree trunks to find a natural hole in which it will fit. The toucan lines the inside of its hole with bits of bark it scrapes from the tree.
Berry-licious[]
- A toco toucan spots a bunch of tasty-looking berries, so it perches on a nearby branch and reaches out with its long beak to snag one of the fruits.
- With the berry in its bill, the bird puts its tongue to use to bring the food from the tip of the bill to the opening of its mouth.
- The bird throws its head back to swallow the berry, but can't digest the hard seeds inside. It leans over and spits them out onto the ground.
Trivia[]
- The card's front illustration is also used in the Wildlife Explorer series, for the Toco Toucan's profile. The main difference is the images are flipped between the series.
- The two cards also share the photo of the toucan eating the fruit, and the illustrations for "Berry-licious". The latter, titled "Fruit Raiders", has an extra first image of the toucan flying with a partner over the canopy looking for food.
- The front of the knowledge card mentions the Fruit Loops cereal brand.
- The toco toucan is featured on several Monster Mania cards:
- It is first used in one of the example creatures for Create-A-Monster on Monster Mania 89.
- It is then featured in Killer Smiles on Monster Mania 92.