Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Neotrop­i­cal: Emer­ald Tou­canets, Aula­corhynchus pras­i­nus are found abun­dantly in Cen­tral and South Amer­ica, mostly along the east­ern coast. They are sparse in the east­ern-cen­tral parts of Mex­ico and exist more densely in the south­ern moun­tain­ous parts down through Costa Rica and Panama into the north­ern­most part of Venezuela. (Camp­bell 1974, USGS 2001, Pe­ter­son 1973).

Habi­tat

Their na­tive habi­tats are in Mex­ico, Costa Rica, and Panama in the higher el­e­va­tion cloud forests. They have re­cently ex­panded their range into lower el­e­va­tion rain for­est. Emer­ald Tou­canets will make their home at el­e­va­tions from 915 m up to 3050 m (3,000 feet - 10,000 feet). They mi­grate ver­ti­cally from lower el­e­va­tion to higher el­e­va­tion. (Camp­bell 1974, Pe­ter­son 1973, USGS 2001).

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest

• Range elevation

  915 to 3050 m

  3001.97 to 10006.56 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The male and fe­male are monomor­phic (alike) in color, but di­mor­phic (dif­fer­ent) in size. The small­est of the tou­cans, Emer­ald Tou­canets are com­monly 30 cm. to 33 cm. (11 3/4 inches - 13 inches). The male will weigh in at about 160 g. (5.7 ounces), and the fe­male at about 149 g. (5.3 ounces). Adults have col­or­full beaks, with a def­i­nite out­line of white on both; the top one col­ored yel­low, and the bot­tom one col­ored black or dark red de­pend­ing on the sub­species. Their feather col­oration, dom­i­nantly green with high­lights of whites, grays, and red­dish browns, makes them blend in with the col­ors of the trees in which they dwell. (Camp­bell 1974, Dun­ning 1993, Per­rins 1996, Ter­res 1980).

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  149 to 160 g

  5.25 to 5.64 oz

• Range length

  30 to 33 cm

  11.81 to 12.99 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Mat­ing sea­son is typ­i­cally March through July de­pend­ing on the weather, as in­clement weather will harm the eggs or the fe­male dur­ing in­cu­ba­tion. Like many species, they have a com­mon mat­ing prac­tice--a sort of spar­ring--mostly harm­less; they en­gage in “bill fenc­ing” where in­jury does occur be­cause of how ag­gres­sive this ac­tiv­ity can get. This usu­ally be­gins after the pair has worked at prepar­ing a nest.

• Mating System
• monogamous

Three or four white eggs are typ­i­cally found in a tree-hole nest lo­cated be­tween 2 and 30 me­ters (7 feet - 90 feet) above ground. Each egg has an in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of about 16 days. Both par­ents par­tic­i­pate in the in­cu­ba­tion be­fore hatch­ing, and in the nest­ing and feed­ing after; but are never in the nest at the same time. The par­ents keep a clean nest for their al­tri­cial (not well de­vel­oped) young. The chicks have no eye­sight the first 16 days, and though their eyes may no longer be tightly closed at about 25 days, they re­main cloudy until about 27 days. Their feath­ers are not at all ap­par­ent the first 20 days. At about 35 days, ex­cept for hav­ing only pink skin around their eyes and the ab­sence of the white line on their mandibles, they ap­pear to have full plumage--green, like the adult. They take flight as early as 40 days, at which time the feed­ings pro­vided by the par­ents begin to de­crease until such time as the young do not re­turn to the nest at all; at about 43 days. (Camp­bell 1974, Skutch 1983).

Typ­i­cally the Emer­ald Tou­canet is con­sid­ered to be a sec­ondary cav­ity nester, ap­pro­pri­at­ing pre­vi­ously ex­ca­vated holes in trees from smaller species.​This nest hole is then en­larged just enough for the adult Emer­ald Tou­canet to get in­side. The male seems to be the re­lief par­ent in nest­ing ac­tiv­i­ties, giv­ing the fe­male short to ex­tended breaks dur­ing the process of prepar­ing the nest, clean­ing the nest, and for­ag­ing and feed­ing the brood. While the brood is pre­sent only the fe­male will stay through­out the night. The male re­lief comes through­out the day. (Camp­bell 1974, Skutch 1983, Tou­cans 1999).

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• oviparous

• Range eggs per season

  3 to 4

• Average time to hatching

  16 days

• Average fledging age

  43 days

Both par­ents par­tic­i­pate in the in­cu­ba­tion be­fore hatch­ing, and in the nest­ing and feed­ing after; but are never in the nest at the same time. The par­ents keep a clean nest for their al­tri­cial (not well de­vel­oped) young.

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• male parental care
• female parental care

Lifes­pan/Longevity

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  10 (low) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  11.00 years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  12 to 14 years

Be­hav­ior

Emer­ald Tou­canets search for food in pairs or small flocks of up to about eight birds. They are very ac­tive birds cov­er­ing large amounts of ter­ri­tory on a daily basis. They roost in trees, perched on branches. A nest is used only for in­cu­ba­tion and rais­ing the brood. (Skutch 1983, Ter­res 1980, Tou­cans 1999).

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Emer­ald Tou­canets are om­niv­o­rous, eat­ing lizards and the eggs or nestlings of other birds when pos­si­ble, though in­sects and fruits are the largest part of their diet. (Ter­res 1980).

Pre­da­tion

A Bat Fal­con--once ob­served by a boy who helped Alexan­der Skutch find nests at Mon­tana Azul--was the only preda­tor of adult Emer­ald Tou­canets, cited within. It is pre­sumed snakes and other ar­bo­real an­i­mals are also a threat, pri­mar­ily to eggs or un­fledged off­spring. (Skutch 1983).

Ecosys­tem Roles

Emer­ald Tou­canets have been iden­ti­fied as a seed dis­perser for sev­eral rain­for­est trees. Stud­ies in­di­cate that the ger­mi­na­tion rate of seeds of these trees is higher fol­low­ing the seeds pass­ing through the di­ges­tive tract of the bird. (Wenny 2000).

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Emer­ald Tou­canets were not found in any of these en­dan­gered species data­bases. How­ever, the im­por­tance being placed on the cof­fee mar­ket may some­day have a neg­a­tive ef­fect of sur­vival for this species. (Hen­riquez 1999).

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  No special status

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Debra Pel­louso (au­thor), Fresno City Col­lege, Carl Jo­hans­son (ed­i­tor), Fresno City Col­lege.

Ref­er­ences

Camp­bell, B. 1974. The Dic­tio­nary of BIRDS in color. New York: Ex­eter Books.

Dun­ning, J. 1993. CRC Hand­book of Avian Body Masses. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Inc..

Hen­riquez, A. June 1999. "Celaque Na­tional Park, Hon­duras" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 14, 2001 at http://​www.​generation.​net/​~derekp/CelaqueE-S.​html.

Per­rins, C. 1996. The Il­lus­trated En­cy­clo­pe­dia of BIRDS. New York: Barnes & Noble.

Pe­ter­son, R., E. Chalif. Oc­to­ber 1973. A Field Guide to Mex­i­can Birds. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pany.

River­banks Zoo, 1999. "Tou­cans at River­banks Zoo / Breed­ing" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 14, 2001 at http://​www.​riverbanks.​org/​aig/​2canbree.​htm.

Skutch, A. 1983. Birds of Trop­i­cal Amer­ica. Austin: Uni­ver­sity of Texas Press.

Ter­res, J. 1980. The Audubon So­ci­ety EN­CY­CLO­PE­DIA OF NORTH AMER­I­CAN BIRDS. New York: Al­fred A. Knopf.

USGS, "Emer­ald Tou­canet Habi­tat Map" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 5, 2001 at http://​www.​mbr.​nbs.​gov/​central_​america/​birds/​bird555_​distr.​gif.

Wenny, D. May 2000. Seed dis­per­sal, seed pre­da­tion, and seedling re­cruit­ment of a newtrop­i­cal mon­tane tree. Eco­log­i­cal Mono­graphs / Eco­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Amer­ica, 70 (2): 331-351.