8 Facts About Toucans That Prove What Weird Birds They Are

You know those black birds with giant orange beaks that are usually drawn on all exotic juice labels? Well, they’re called toucans and despite looking like mother nature pressed “Random” when designing them, they’re actually pretty cool – and pretty weird.

A while ago, Tumblr users shared some interesting facts about toucans

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And you thought harpy eagles were weird – well, toucan play this game.

Toucan beaks actually have their own network of blood vessels that the birds use to cool themselves

Image credits: mygrapefruit

Just look at these goofy baby toucans

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Too cute!

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There are 5 different genera of toucans: Ramphastos (typical toucans), Andigena (mountain toucans), Selenidera (dichromatic toucanets), Pteroglossus (araçaris), and Aulacorhynchus (green toucanets).

Even stranger than its beak is a toucan’s tongue – it looks oddly like a feather and can reach lengths up to 6 inches (15 centimeters)

Image credits: ThePocketGamer

Toucan beaks are actually rather light due to the many little air holes

Image credits: Charles J Sharp

Image credits: DR. VECTOR

The name “toucan” comes from the extinct language of the Tupi people of Brazil who used to call the birds “tukana”.

Here’s how a toucan’s beak looks on x-ray

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The rainbow-billed toucan is Belize’s national bird

Image credits: Andy Morffew

Image credits: Basa Roland

Image credits: Charles J Sharp

While these birds mostly eat fruit, they’re called “opportunistically omnivorous”, meaning they’ll eat small animals and insects in order to survive. Imagine getting lost in the jungle and getting attacked by a hungry toucan! We’re kidding of course – unless you’re a lizard, in which case, don’t get lost in the jungle around hungry toucans.

People had some funny toucan jokes up their sleeves