Eggs: 2-4 white.
Incubation: 18 days
In the wild, toco toucans nest in large tree cavities made by other birds such as macaws. Toucans cannot excavate their own cavity but, by relentlessly chewing and hammering, they can modify the walls and entrance hole where the wood is soft enough. They are, after-all, related to woodpeckers; and they use their large feet and powerful bills to good effect.
We prefer to offer the birds hollowed-out palm logs for nesting. We feel they provide the most natural substrate on which the adults and youngsters can climb. Palm logs also allow a certain amount of remodeling from the birds which we believe is an important part of courtship and may help to “synchronize” breeding.
Toco toucans lay their eggs in an unlined nest log – they add nothing to the log, but normally carve the interior and remove pieces of wood until they are ready to nest. Both sexes incubate and rear the young equally. Parent reared birds fledge at about 7 weeks of age.
Our chicks are all left with the parents for the first couple of weeks of their lives before we handrear them. This is done for several reasons:
As you know, breeders tend to take eggs, incubate them and rear from day-1 to maximize production. That makes perfect sense from a “production” point of view. But in the long term, we believe that this practice erodes parental skills and tends to create the self-fulfilling prophesy: breeders take eggs because they feel that the adults will break or neglect them. By contrast, all of our birds are good parents, arguably because we have not "over produced" from them.
The bigger point is that over-production is not our goal. Our primary focus is on quality: health, socialization and preparedness for their new home. We are a small specialized breeder. Our goal is to produce the healthiest and happiest birds that we possibly can, and to see them transition to a home that is right for them.
Incubation: 18 days
In the wild, toco toucans nest in large tree cavities made by other birds such as macaws. Toucans cannot excavate their own cavity but, by relentlessly chewing and hammering, they can modify the walls and entrance hole where the wood is soft enough. They are, after-all, related to woodpeckers; and they use their large feet and powerful bills to good effect.
We prefer to offer the birds hollowed-out palm logs for nesting. We feel they provide the most natural substrate on which the adults and youngsters can climb. Palm logs also allow a certain amount of remodeling from the birds which we believe is an important part of courtship and may help to “synchronize” breeding.
Toco toucans lay their eggs in an unlined nest log – they add nothing to the log, but normally carve the interior and remove pieces of wood until they are ready to nest. Both sexes incubate and rear the young equally. Parent reared birds fledge at about 7 weeks of age.
Our chicks are all left with the parents for the first couple of weeks of their lives before we handrear them. This is done for several reasons:
- we want the adults to experience the full range of breeding activity themselves to develop and retain that experience.
- we feel that chicks initially reared by their parents are stronger and better prepared than birds handreared from the egg. Their immune system is already primed by the adults and we have found that their weight is several days ahead of birds handreared from day-1.
- Toco toucans open their eyes at about 19 days of age, meaning that we are the first caregivers they see. Since they are initially reared by their parents, we feel that they get the best-of-both-worlds.
As you know, breeders tend to take eggs, incubate them and rear from day-1 to maximize production. That makes perfect sense from a “production” point of view. But in the long term, we believe that this practice erodes parental skills and tends to create the self-fulfilling prophesy: breeders take eggs because they feel that the adults will break or neglect them. By contrast, all of our birds are good parents, arguably because we have not "over produced" from them.
The bigger point is that over-production is not our goal. Our primary focus is on quality: health, socialization and preparedness for their new home. We are a small specialized breeder. Our goal is to produce the healthiest and happiest birds that we possibly can, and to see them transition to a home that is right for them.