They prefer to remain high in trees, where they hop from branch to branch. They bathe in pools of rain water in hollows high in trunks and limbs. They offer food to their companions and, perching well apart, preen them with the tips of long bills. Toucans are playful birds and often engage in various games. Their diet consists mainly of fruit but includes insects, an occasional lizard, eggs and nestlings of smaller birds.
Toucans nest in holes in trees.
The nest chamber is never lined, but the 2-4 white eggs rest upon a few chips at the bottom, or upon a pebbly bed of regurgitated seeds of various sizes. Parents share incubation and are, for birds of their size, impatient sitters, rarely remaining at their task for more than an hour and often leaving their eggs uncovered. After about 16 days of incubation the nestlings hatch blind and naked, with no trace of down on their pink skins. Nestlings are fed by both parents, with increasing quantities of fruit. The feathers of the small toucanets do not begin to expand until they are nearly four weeks old.