From eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and western Ecuador, you can find the unusual chestnut-mandibled toucan, also called Swainson’s toucan (Ramphastos ambiguus swainsonii).

Both the scientific and English names of this toucan are an homage to William Swainson, an English artist and ornithologist. A subspecies of the yellow-throated toucan has been used to describe it since 2009.

The chestnut-mandibled toucan, like all toucans, has a huge bill that serves as a distinctive feature. While females are slightly shorter at approximately 52 cm, males can reach a length of about 56 cm. They range in weight from 599 to 746 grams, or 1.3 to 1.6 pounds. The bird’s plumage is mostly black with maroon markings on the breаst, upper back, and head. Narrow white and wider red lines border the face and upper breаst, which are a vivid yellow. A crimson lower abdomen contrasts with a white top tail. Their bill is diagonally divided with a brilliant yellow top and a maroon bottom; their legs are blue as well.

Behaviour: When foraging in the jungle, these toucans usually travel in small groups of three to twelve birds. Their swooping flying pattern covers just a few hundred meters at most. Bugs, lizards, eggs, and frogs round out their diet, while fruit is their main source of nutrition. In order to share food sources, they frequently accompany keel-billed toucans.

A chestnut-mandibled toucan’s call can be characterized as a yelping yo-YIP, a-yip, a-yip, or the Spanish phrase “Dios te dé, Dios te dé,” which it uses to communicate with its flock and guide its movements.

 

Breeding season for these toucans lasts all year in the damp woodlands of the lowlands. They use ancient woodpecker nests or walled cavities in decaying parts of live trees to lay clutches of 2–4 white eggs. When it comes to incubating eggs for the first fourteen or fifteen days, both parents pitch in. Until they are ready to leave the nest, the parents will keep the young birds in the nest for approximately six weeks after they hatch.

The social activities and feeding habits of the chestnut-mandibled toucan are vital to its ecology, and the bird’s beauty and complexity are on full display in its habitat.