The Keel-billed Toucan, known as the "bill bird"locally, is the national bird of Belize. The most obvious characteristic of the toucan is the huge yellow, orange, red, green and black bill. The toucan's bill is amazingly dextrous and allows the bird to feed on a variety of tropical forest fruits.

The Keel-billed toucans are a very social bird and can often be seen in flocks of six or more birds. They are found throughout Belize's forests and nest in holes in tree trunks. They lay one to four eggs and the parent birds take turns incubating the eggs. This bird displays a rapid, heavy flapping of the wings when flying and calls with a creek creek sound, similar to a frog.

Toucans are primarily fruit eaters, feeding on a wide variety of tropical fruits of the forest. It feeds by snipping off the fruit and flipping its head back to gulp the fruit. Toucans will also feed on insects, lizards, snakes and event he eggs of smaller birds.

large bill is "honey-combed" and reinforced with a network of bony fibers, making the bill very light. If the bill were solid and heavy the bird would have difficulty flying. Toucans often "fence" with each other with their bills and will play with berries in their bills, tossing the berries in the air, or to one another.

The toucan's beak appears quite heavy, but is actually light. It is hollow, made of the protein keratin with thin rods of bone to support it – similar in consistency to a hard sponge. Its tongue is like a feather that is used to catch food and flick it down its throat. Although scientists have yet to discover the exact function of such a large bill, they believe it may play an important role in the courtship display and as a defensive weapon. When toucans sleep, they turn their head so that their long bill rests on their back and their tail is folded over their head. The bird becomes a ball of feathers. Often found in abandoned tree hollows or old woodpecker holes, 5-6 adults may sleep in one hole. The keel-billed toucan is the national bird of Belize, or "bill bird" as it is known locally. In its native region, toucans are associated with evil spirits and are thought to be the incarnation of a demon. In certain religions of South and Central America, the father of a new child must not eat toucan flesh as it might bewitch the newborn and cause it to fade away. The toucan can also be a tribal totem and the medicine man can use it as an incarnation to fly to the spirit world. The toucan is a poor flyer, moving from tree to tree mostly by hopping. Toucans have a loud frog like call that can be heard up to a half mile away in the jungle!