Birds

Emerald Toucanet, Finca El Paraiso, Honduras

March 21, 2009 by Corey 7 Comments

As I have already related in my post about birding a shade-grown coffee plantation there was an Emerald Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus prasinus) that was kind enough to stay in one spot long enough for me to digiscope it. The green bird, which could amazingly almost disappear in the foliage, was feeding on fruit (figs? Nope, manteco, according to James). It was great fun watching it stretch and use that giant bill to delicately pluck individual fruit and gulp them down. Sometimes the bird had to use twister-like contortions to get the particular fruit that it wanted. I kept expecting it to lose its balance, considering the size of its bill, but the bill, made of keratin, is amazingly lightweight despite its size. I hope you enjoy looking at the images I got as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Of course, because nothing about the taxonomy of birds in Central America is simple, and it has been suggested that Emerald Toucanet are actually more than one species. There is a simple rundown on the Wikipedia entry for the bird (and Nick has a ton more here and here). So who wants to send me back to Central America so I can find the other varieties?

Written by Corey

Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.

7 Comments

James Adams March 21, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hi Corey,
That’s a beautiful Toucanette. They are not the easiest bird to see here in Honduras so believe me you’ve got something special there. The fruit and tree are of a very important species called “manteco” (meaning fat or lard) in Spanish and are of the Ulmaceae family. It’s a tropical relative to your North American elm. We’ve seen up to 30 species of birds feeding on one of these trees at the same time. Next time you see one with fruit, stay put. You wont believe what comes in to feed. -James Adams, The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
Nick March 21, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Nice bird! I once tried to tackle toucanet taxonomy:
http://slybird.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-many-toucanets-part-1.html
I think I came out of it only more confused, although most of the problems seem to be in South America. Central America is pretty straightforward.
Corey March 21, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Thanks for the botanical info James.
And Nick, thanks for that link! That’s an informative post…
Nate March 22, 2009 at 10:40 am
That’s definitely from a different population than those I saw in CR, which were the Blue-throated birds, A.p. maxillaris.
A really cool bird, or birds I guess.
Colene March 22, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Ditto on the blue-throated type in Costa Rica. And they don’t limit themselves to fruit. Outside a tiny cabina we stayed in near Monte Verde, a toucanet made daily rounds. We always knew when to watch because the local nesting birds, worried about their eggs or nestlings, set up a huge noisy alarm.
Megan June 15, 2009 at 4:32 am
Nice photos, I have two emerald toucanets, same subspecies as the one in your photo even. I’ve never seen any in the wild, but maybe some day. The subspecies you photographed is the most common one in captivity in the US, but all toucans are just very rare all around in US aviculture really.