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8 Facts About Toucans That Prove What Weird Birds They Are

You know those black birds with giant orange beaks that are usually drawn on all exotic juice labels? Well, they’re called toucans and despite looking like mother nature pressed “Random” when designing them, they’re actually pretty cool – and pretty weird.

A while ago, a few Tumblr shared some interesting toucan facts that prove just how weird the little birds are. Giant beaks, tiny bodies, and even weirder tongues – check out the most interesting toucan facts in the gallery below!

A while ago, Tumblr users shared some interesting facts about toucans

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And you thought harpy eagles were weird – well, toucan play this game.

Toucan beaks actually have their own network of blood vessels that the birds use to cool themselves

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Just look at these goofy baby toucans

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Too cute!

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There are 5 different genera of toucans: Ramphastos (typical toucans), Andigena (mountain toucans), Selenidera (dichromatic toucanets), Pteroglossus (araçaris), and Aulacorhynchus (green toucanets).

Even stranger than its beak is a toucan’s tongue – it looks oddly like a feather and can reach lengths up to 6 inches (15 centimeters)

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Toucan beaks are actually rather light due to the many little air holes

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The name “toucan” comes from the extinct language of the Tupi people of Brazil who used to call the birds “tukana”.

Here’s how a toucan’s beak looks on x-ray

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The rainbow-billed toucan is Belize’s national bird

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While these birds mostly eat fruit, they’re called “opportunistically omnivorous”, meaning they’ll eat small animals and insects in order to survive. Imagine getting lost in the jungle and getting attacked by a hungry toucan! We’re kidding of course – unless you’re a lizard, in which case, don’t get lost in the jungle around hungry toucans.

People had some funny toucan jokes up their sleeves

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Aušrys Uptas

One day, this guy just kind of figured - “I spend most of my time on the internet anyway, why not turn it into a profession?” - and he did! Now he not only gets to browse the latest cat videos and fresh memes every day but also shares them with people all over the world, making sure they stay up to date with everything that’s trending on the web. Some things that always pique his interest are old technologies, literature and all sorts of odd vintage goodness. So if you find something that’s too bizarre not to share, make sure to hit him up!