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  Profile

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  In flight

Toucans & Aracaris

Grey-breasted Mountain Toucan

Andigena hypoglauca

• epic
• 43 km/h
• Least Concern

Andean cloud forest only. Bill painted yellow, red, and blue. Least Concern globally but declining as cloud forest shrinks.

Population

25,000–77,000 mature individuals

Habitat

Wet/humid temperate montane forest — cloud forest, elfin forest, forest borders, wooded gullies, and secondary growth — mostly 2,200–3,650 m elevation (locally down to ~1,500 m in Peru, ~1,700 m in Ecuador)

Fun fact

Despite its oversized, colorful bill, this toucan is an agile flier that moves through the misty high-Andean cloud forest in small, noisy family groups, foraging from the ground up into the canopy.

Range

Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; nominate subspecies from central/southern Colombia into eastern Ecuador, A. h. lateralis from eastern Ecuador south into Peru

Diet

Almost entirely fruit and berries (one stomach-content sample of 14 birds was 100% fruit, including Rubus and Cecropia); some accounts note occasional small vertebrates/eggs, especially fed to young, though this is less certain than the frugivory

Size

0.45 m

Lifespan

20 years