From SVBC member and former Detectives de Aves instructor Roni Chernin.

For years I had heard about how Yellow-throated Toucans rob other birds nests and eat the eggs; but I had never seen it personally. Until now.

The other morning I heard some scuffing in a tree and looked up. A Toucan was in there along with a few other birds on nearby branches.

I watched him take off for a nearby tree, carefully balancing an entire nest in his beak. He perched in a fairly open tree so I could plainly see him working his beak and claw with the nest. Though I could not see the outcome I hoped the meal was eggs and not chicks

When he was finished, the empty nest fell to the ground, not unlike a discarded sandwich wrapper.

Some may call the Toucan’s behavior nasty or rude. But nature makes no such judgements.