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Toucan Puzzle.
The toucan is an inhabitant of the tropical and highland forests of Central and South America. The birds are best known for having one of the largest and brightest beaks in nature. These exotic birds are also distinguished by their trusting nature, thanks to which they easily get along with humans and are kept as pets.

Description of the toucan and origin of the name
The toucan is a bird of the toucan family of the woodpecker order. The closest relatives of these birds are woodpeckers, puffballs, cabezons and toucan beardies.

The Latin name for toucans is Ramphastos, and in most countries of the world the name of these birds is consonant with Russian: in Portuguese the bird is known as tucano, in English - toucan, in German - tukan.

The explanation for the origin of the name of these bright-beaked birds is simple - the birds shout loudly “toko”, “tocano”, which was transformed into “toucan”. Toucans are also sometimes called pepper-eaters.

Appearance of a toucan
These birds are quite large in size: body length reaches 25–50 cm, the weight of an average adult individual can reach 400–500 g.

INTERESTING FACT. The largest representative of this family is the great toucan or toco toco, whose body weight is almost 900 g and length is 75 cm. The smallest of the toucans is the letter arasari, whose average weight is only 130 g.

The toucan's body is dense and elongated. The head is also oblong, merging with a thick, not very graceful neck. The birds' wings are short, but quite wide, and consist of 11 primary flight feathers. Despite the fact that these birds do not like to stay in the air for a long time, the toucan looks very impressive in flight.

Most members of the family have a short tail with a straight cut. But there are also individuals with an elongated tail (for example, the Derby toucan).

Toucans have strong, four-toed legs. The fingers are spread out in pairs - two pointing forward and two pointing back. This arrangement makes it difficult for the bird to walk on a flat surface, but allows the bird to hold tightly to the branches. The paws are colored blue-gray or light green.

In some species of toucans, the plumage is not the most noticeable: in a large toucan, the main part of the body is painted black, only the underside of the neck and the area above the tail can be white or yellow. But most members of the family can compete even with parrots in the brightness of their feathers: in nature there are toucans whose colors combine green, light green, yellow, blue and red.

Another noticeable feature of the toucan is the shade of the skin around the eyes. This part of the bird’s body is unfeathered and is most often colored orange, light green or yellow. By the way, a bird’s iris can range from black to blue and light green.

Toucan and its beak
The most remarkable feature of toucans is their huge, laterally flattened beak, the length of which can reach from 15 to 25 cm. Despite its large size, the toucan's beak is light (no heavier than that of other bird species), because its inner part consists of foam-like, air-bearing bone tissue. The top of the beak is covered with keratin, which gives it strength. The beak has small serrations that help the bird in peeling and eating fruits.

Also, the beak of these birds plays an important role in thermoregulation: many blood vessels pass through the foam-like cavity, and when the body overheats, the beak absorbs excess heat due to blood flow.

Toucan chicks have a different beak shape - its lower part is longer than the upper. Thanks to this structure, it is easier for parents to put food into the mouth of the young.

The bright color of the beak is also noteworthy. Depending on the type of bird, the color can be orange, yellow, light green with blue hues, and even deep burgundy.

The toucan has a long, narrow tongue in its mouth.

Types of toucans
The toucan family includes 45 species of birds, which are grouped into 5 genera:

toucanets (Aulacorhynchus);
arasari (Pteroglossus);
seleniders (Selenidera);
Andigena;
toucans (Ramphastos).
Let's look at the brightest and most common representatives of the family.

Male and female toucan: main differences
In most species of toucans, female and male individuals do not differ, but in some representatives of the family, sexual dimorphism is slightly pronounced. For example, the female and male large toucan differ in body size - the male weighs 150–200 g more than the female. In black-headed arasari, the male has a longer beak than the female.

Individuals of Guiana Selenidera differ in color:

the male has a black back, head, belly and tail, green wings with an olive tint, the undertail and tip of the tail are red-brown, and there are orange-yellow feathers on the cheeks;
The female has less rich plumage than the male, and the female has a gray chest and a red-brown stripe on the back of the head.
The male letter arasari has jet black head feathers, while the female has chestnut brown feathers.