Ramphastos tucanus
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~90% in a week >90%
The white-throated toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) is a near-passerine bird in the family Ramphastidae found in South America throughout the Amazon Basin including the adjacent Tocantins and Araguaia River drainage. It prefers tropical humid forest, but also occurs in woodland and locally in riverine forest within cerrado.
The white-throated toucan was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other toucans in the genus Ramphastos and coined the binomial name Ramphastos tucanus. Linnaeus specified the "habitat" as South America. The type locality was restricted to Suriname by the American ornithologists Ludlow Griscom and James Greenway in 1937. The genus name is from Ancient Greek ῥαμφηστης/rhamphēstēs meaning "snouted" (from ῥαμφη/rhampē meaning "bill"). The specific epithet tucanus is from the Guarani language and may mean "bonenose".
Three subspecies are recognized by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, and the Clements taxonomy: BirdLife International's Handbook... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 4 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 5 | Anavilhanas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 8 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 9 | Amboró National Park | 🇧🇴 Bolivia |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Toucan sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 2,059 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 3rd most-seen of the 533 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 90%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, May, July–August, October and December
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a White-throated Toucan in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against about 40% in February and April, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-throated Toucan sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate White-throated Toucan sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 3rd at about 50%. The best odds are in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 60%) and Sierra de la Macarena National Park (Colombia, about 60%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-throated Toucan is recorded against all the birds logged in Yasuní National Park (2,059 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
