Choco Toucan
Ramphastos brevis
Large black and yellow toucan with a yellow stripe on the top of the bill. Inhabits lowland and foothill rainforest west of the Andes. Similar to chestnut-mandibled races of Yellow-throated Toucan, but with black on the lower part of the bill. This can be hard to distinguish in poor light, so voice is often the best way to ID: it makes a rasping or croaking call instead of a yelp.
Identification
The Choco toucan is 46 to 48.5 cm (18 to 19 in) long and weighs 365 to 482 g (13 to 17 oz). The sexes are alike though the female's bill is shorter than the male's. Their bill's maxilla is mostly yellow with some green on the culmen and a black triangle at its base. Their mandible is black, sometimes with a yellow tip. Their crown and nape are black with a maroon tinge; their upperparts and tail are black except for white uppertail coverts. Bare yellow-green to olive green skin surrounds their eye. Their throat and breast are yellow with a narrow red band below the breast. Their belly is black and their undertail coverts red. The plumage is almost identical to that of the "chestnut-mandibled" subspecies of yellow-throated toucan (R. a. swainsonii), with which there is a range overlap, but their voices separate them.
Taxonomy
The Choco toucan was long treated as a subspecies of the yellow-throated toucan (R. ambiguus) but vocal differences and other characteristics led to their being split. It and the channel-billed toucan (R. vitellinus) are sister species. The Choco toucan is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Ramphastos brevis
- Authority
- Meyer de Schauensee, 1945
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Ramphastidae
- Genus
- Ramphastos
Range and habitat
As suggested by its common name, the Choco toucan is restricted to the humid Chocó region from northwestern Colombia to southwestern Ecuador. It mostly inhabits lowland and foothill forest but also occurs in pastures and plantations with fruiting trees that adjoin forest. In elevation it is found up to about 1,550 m (5,100 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The Choco toucan does not have a migratory pattern, but pairs and groups move up- and downslope while foraging.<p>The Choco toucan forages mostly in the forest canopy. Its diet is not known in detail but is mainly fruits and probably includes insects and small vertebrates. It has been noted following army ant swarms, probably to feed on prey disturbed by them.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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