Articulated toucan keychain with big beak

A radiator on its head

In 2009 Glenn Tattersall and colleagues published a study in the journal Science that used a thermal camera on the toco toucan. Above about 16 °C, the beak started to give off heat. An adult toucan can regulate its beak so finely that it sometimes accounts for only 5 per cent of heat loss, and very briefly for almost all of it.

When a toucan sleeps, it tucks its beak under its wings. That way it loses less heat.

Relative to its body, the toco toucan has the largest beak of all birds. The beak has no insulating layer of fat or feathers, and under the hard outer layer there is a dense network of blood vessels.

Light yet strong

Such a big beak looks heavy, but it is not. Research by Marc Meyers and colleagues at the University of California San Diego showed that the outside consists of overlapping scales of keratin, the same material as your nails. Inside there is a light, foam-like core. That makes the beak light yet strong.

More than heat

• Eating: the toucan eats fruit and small animals.
• Standing out: Darwin already thought the brightly coloured beak was a kind of billboard for partners.
• Growing: young toucans have a beak of ordinary size for the first four to five weeks; only then does it grow out.

Biocraftlab's toucan

On this figure the beak is just as much an eye-catcher as on the real bird: big and bright orange, above a black body with a white chest. The body consists of hinged parts. A protruding beak is also a challenge for a print: the position on the print bed determines how smooth it becomes and how strong the transition to the head is. That is the topic of the knowledge-base article on 3D print orientation.