This is Bird Note.

Some birds seem like they came straight out of the mind of a cartoonist.

The kill-built toucan, also known as a rainbow-built toucan, looks like a bird with a giant

banana for a beak.

They have a black body, a yellow patch from the face to the breast,

and a huge rainbow-colored bill.

These tropical beauties flound their colors

from the jungles of southern Mexico to Venezuela.

Their songs set the mood at Mayan

archaeological ruins like those of Kalakmul in Mexico. In Belize, the Kiel-billed

Tuchan is so cherished that they named the species their national bird when

they gained independence in 1981.

The rainbow-built toucan feeds mostly on fruits.

They home them with their beaks,

tilt their heads backward, and chomp down.

These toucans aren't skilled at flying,

preferring to hop from branch to branch. They don't like being alone either.

They move in groups of six to thirty birds.

And when living together create some friction, they use your beaks as swords and dewlake.

Those big beaks aren't just for fighting, though.

All the blood flowing through the beak helps

toucans regulate their body temperature in the tropical heat.

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