Profile
In flight
Toucans & Aracaris
Channel-billed Toucan
Ramphastos vitellinus
- rare
- 42 km/h
- Least Concern
Named for the shallow groove running the length of its upper mandible. Vulnerable, and still hauling fruit across Amazonia.
- Population
- Global population size not quantified; described as generally common (e.g., over 80,000 breeding pairs estimated in French Guiana alone); overall population trend decreasing (est. 1-19% decline over three generations), driven mainly by hunting/trapping for trade and habitat loss
- Habitat
- Humid lowland forest, forest edge, swamp forest, and riverine forest near water, tolerating small forest patches in savanna and secondary/logged forest at reduced density; mainly below 1,000 m, locally to 1,700 m elevation
- Fun fact
- Channel-billed Toucans often engage in ritualized "fruit-tossing" duels between rival males, batting fruit back and forth with their oversized bills.
- Range
- Tropical South America and Trinidad and Tobago: eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana), and Amazonian Brazil, extending south through the Amazon basin to central Bolivia and southern/eastern Brazil (Extent of Occurrence ~2,100,000 km²)
- Diet
- Primarily fruit (especially lipid-rich Virola and Euterpe palm fruit, also Cecropia, Ficus, and other plants, including opportunistic feeding on cultivated papaya, mango, avocado, and pepper), supplemented with insects, small reptiles, frogs, and eggs/nestlings of other birds
- Size
- 0.48 m
- Lifespan
- 20 years
