The bird with the biggest mouth in the world is the toucan.

Usually we think that birds have small mouths, but there is a bird in the world whose mouth is 24 cm -30 cm long and 5-9 cm wide, so the sickle mouth is out of proportion to its body. So do you want to know what kind of bird it is and what habits and characteristics it has? Let's have a look!

The bird with the biggest mouth in the world is the toucan.

Toucan (beak length 24 cm, width 9 cm)

It is about 67 cm long and has a huge mouth, with a length of 17 ~ 24 cm and a width of 5 ~ 9 cm, which looks like a mouth knife. The mouth is beautiful, the upper part is yellow, slightly light green, the lower part is blue, and the tip of the beak is dotted with a little crimson. The eyes are inlaid with sky-blue feathers, the chest is orange and the spine is painted black. Its colorful and magical beak makes it very ornamental. It mainly feeds on fruits, seeds, insects, eggs and chickens. Build a nest with a tree hole. Mainly distributed in tropical forests in South America, especially in the mouth of the Amazon River.

In the tropical forest between Argentina and Mexico, there is a bird. It looks like a hornbill in Xishuangbanna, China, but its mouth is much bigger than that in China. Especially at the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil, there is a bird with a body length of 60 cm. Its mouth is 24 cm long and 9 cm wide. According to records, the largest mouths are 30 cm long, almost half of their bodies. Because this bird has the largest mouth, it is called Toucan, the bird with the largest mouth in the world.

Habits and characteristics of toucans

It looks like a hornbill, with a body length of more than 70 cm, but a mouth length of 22 cm, which is almost 1/3 of the whole body, and a mouth width of 8 cm. This is really a real toucan. The toucan's sickle mouth is out of proportion to its body, so it is particularly heavy. I'm really worried about its neck. I'm afraid its thick mouth will bite off its neck bone. Actually, it is not. Although its mouth is big, it is light, weighing less than 30 grams. It turns out that the toucan's oral bone structure is very special. It is not a solid, just a thin crust outside, and a very fine spongy bone tissue runs through it, which is filled with air. So it doesn't feel heavy at all, and pecking is also very flexible.

The spine of the toucan's back and the base of its tail has evolved uniquely, so that its tail can be attached to its head. Therefore, when a toucan perches, it will bury its head and beak under the tail feathers covered forward, which looks like a fluffy ball. Toucans are colorful in appearance, especially in the beak, which is even more beautiful. The upper part of yellow is slightly green, the lower part is blue, and the tip of beak is a little crimson. Coupled with the blue feathers around the eyes, orange chest and dark back, it is particularly eye-catching in various main colors. Its cry is so loud and thick that it can be heard far away. Toucans are sensitive and alert. When they move in groups, there is always a bird guarding around like a "sentry" to prevent the enemy from suddenly attacking, so it is not easy to be caught. It has four toes on its feet, two in front and two in the back, but it doesn't climb forward, but jumps forward. When it moves on the ground, its feet are very apart, like a fat man in a long jump, which is very interesting.

Toucans also have an interesting way to eat. When eating, it always pecks up a piece with the tip of its mouth, then raises its neck, throws food on it, then opens its mouth and falls into its throat accurately without going through its long mouth. What a time-saving expert. They feed on fruits, seeds and insects, and sometimes they plunder eggs and chickens. They use tree holes as their nests and lay 2-4 eggs at a time. (fortune telling)

Social toucans are generally small in scale and fly in rows. When flying, large toucans often flap their wings several times, then close their wings to show a downward trend, then spread their wings for short-distance gliding, and then start flapping their wings again. Because a long flight is obvious to them.

It is difficult to get there, so it is rare to cross a large open space or a wide river. The frequency of races is much faster than flapping wings, among which toucans look like puffins with long tails, but they also fly in a single row. Toucans like to live on tall trunks and branches. On rainy days, they will take a bath with accumulated water in the tree hole overhead. Spouses feed each other, but they don't get close to each other when they live on branches, but gently comb each other's feathers with their long beaks.

Why does a toucan have such a big mouth?

In fact, although its mouth is very big, it weighs less than 30 grams. Because its mouth is covered with a thin and hard shell, there are several slender and porous sea-like bone tissues in the middle, which are filled with air, so there is no heavy pressure on the toucan. Toucans feed on fruits, plant seeds and insects, and sometimes they prey on birds and eggs. It takes tree holes as its camp and lays 2-4 eggs at a time.