He must have been out in the sun (Image: Stephen Dalton/NHPA)
IF THE toco toucan had evolved in chilly Ireland, its impressive bill would have been much more modest. That’s the conclusion of researchers who say heat exchange can be added to diet and mate attraction as key drivers of bird beak size.
Last year Glenn Tattersall of Brock University in Ontario, Canada, found the toco toucan loses up to 60 per cent of its body heat through its beak.
Now he and Matthew Symonds, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, have compared beak length in 214 bird species…
