A Brightly Colored Gem Of A Bird Living Up To Its Jewel Of A Name – Meet The Emerald Toucanet!
This bird has quite an extensive pallet with over 113 plants included in its diet!
For good reason, this bird’s bright green emerald plumage and colorful characteristics are what give it its name.
Meet the Emerald toucanet
The emerald toucanet or northern emerald toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus), is a species of bird in the Ramphastidae family. Both the male and female are a similar color, though the female is generally smaller, with a slightly shorter-bill. Mainly green in color, the tip of the tail, and the vent are more of a rufous color.
The bill is black with yellow on the upper mandible.
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–A very distinctive brilliantly colored bird with not just one, but two songs.
Juveniles tend to be dull in color, with the bill dusky, or entirely yellow in color.
These birds and other sub-species like the blue-throated toucanet live in the mountainous regions of Mexico and Central America.
The Emerald toucanet prefers to live in humid forests at higher elevations.
Primarily an upper canopy, arboreal fruit-eater, this bird has quite an extensive pallet with over 113 plants included in its diet in Costa Rica alone. It will supplement its fruitarian diet with insects, lizards, and eggs.
Nesting in tree cavities the Emerald toucanet breeds from March-August in Costa Rica, finding a nest about 2 – 27 meters off the ground. 3 – 4 eggs are laid in an unlined hole, sometimes an old woodpecker nest or a natural cavity. The eggs are incubated for 14 -15 days by both the male and the female before hatching. The hatchlings are fed by both parents too before being fledged at 6 weeks of age.
Due to its wide range, this bird is not thought to be under any immediate threat.
Watch and listen to this bird right here in the video below:
H/T Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Scarlet Pantaloons, And An Equally Striking Scarlet Chest And Head Contrasts Beautifully With Glossy Black Plumage!
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