Post ^. Toucans - Ramphastidae
Noses of change

Brazil is a hot-spot of biodiversity: it hosts uncountable - as partly still undiscovered - plant and animal species, among them several toucan species. Toucans are very colorful birds, characterized by giant bills. According to a Brazilian narrative the toucan is the king of all animals.

Due to its ongoing deforestation, toucan populations decrease in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, setting off a rapid evolutionary change of species ...

Post ^. Making of
In the beginning

... was the Cloth,
and the Cloth was ...

Post ^. Oology
Egg, white.
Egg, round.

The eggs of different bird species are a "hotbed" of diversity, be it in shape, size or colour. One exception are cavity-nesters' eggs. As such, toucans' eggs are rather uniform, even across different species: almost round and nearly white, that is. Perfectly hidden from most predators' sight in cavity-trees, there is no need for camouflage by pits, spots, gloss or colours. And as there is also no danger of rolling down cliffs or out of the nest, there is no reason for experiments in shape.

-> photo gallery

Blog ^. Start
Hatched

Sat on and brooded over, Schnabel's Blog is hatching ... NOW.

We are looking forward to your suggestions of organisms or topics for posts (including an abstract of the publication you refer to). Read more about the blog -> here.

One year after his first appearance at Frankfurt Book Fair 2013, "Schnabel" has landed, right in the middle of Springer Science+Business Media's foyer at Heidelberg, where he is on public display starting October 1, 2014. Go, visit, feed him ... and take a photo to post here.

We are happy to announce that the archetype of "Schnabel's Blog" has been laid - out, here.

The big-billed bird himself is on the way to Heidelberg, where he is going to be on display (details to follow).

Once the bird has landed, its blog begins to hatch ...