Toucan ASCII art in keyboard characters, drawn for this page: 22 pieces. Toucans on a branch facing either way, fencing, asleep, in a tree hollow and holding a berry, with heads in three sizes and a sign to type on.
Read the full guide
What makes it a toucan
Wikipedia's Toucan article calls the large bill the hallmark of toucans: in some large species it is more than half as long as the body. So no bill here is shorter than its head, and each thins toward the tip: number signs, then equals signs, then hyphens. The eye is a letter o.
Write on the sign
Toucan perched on a sign takes 14 characters in place of YOUR WORDS; longer words push the edge of the board out.
Squash-proof has six pieces with no run of spaces: the three one-liners, a head, a bill on its own and a pair of tracks.
Toucan in a tree hollow is where the article puts the nest: in tree hollows and in holes dug by other animals.
No row of bird emoji is a toucan; the nearest there is the parrot.
Questions and answers
How do you make a toucan with keyboard symbols?
Type ( o)##==--. on one line: a letter o in parentheses for the head, then two number signs, two equals signs, two hyphens and a period for a bill that thins to its tip. That is Toucan head on one line, 11 characters.
Why do toucans have such big beaks?
By Wikipedia's Toucan article, researchers found the bill a highly efficient way to regulate body heat, and it lets a toucan sit in one spot and reach the fruit around it. It is light, built of bone struts filled with foam-like keratin.
What do toucans eat?
Mostly fruit, by Wikipedia's Toucan article, and when the chance comes insects, small lizards and the eggs and nestlings of smaller birds. Toucan with a berry holds one at the tip of an open bill.
How do toucans sleep?
Folded up. By Wikipedia's Toucan article a toucan can snap its tail forward until it touches its head and sleeps that way, a ball of feathers with the tip of the tail sticking out over the head. Toucan asleep, a ball draws that.
All 22 pieces
Your own words 1
Toucan perched on a signThe feet grip the top edge of a board. Type over YOUR WORDS. 8 lines, 18 wide.
One line 3
Toucan head on one lineAn eye in parentheses and a bill that thins from number signs to a period. 1 line, 11 wide.
Toucan on one lineTwo backslashes of tail behind the one-line head. 1 line, 13 wide.
Toucans fencing, one lineTwo heads face each other with the bill tips touching. 1 line, 22 wide.
Small, 2 to 4 lines 8
Small toucan headThe head and a two-row bill. 3 lines, 14 wide.
Squash-proof toucan billThe bill with no bird behind it, three rows tall. 3 lines, 24 wide.
Squash-proof toucan headPeriods fill the head, so no two spaces touch. 4 lines, 20 wide.
Squash-proof toucan tracksThe two X footprints with periods between the toes. 3 lines, 8 wide.
Tiny toucan on a twigThe whole bird in four lines. 4 lines, 10 wide.
Toucan croakingThe bird and its call, written twice. 4 lines, 29 wide.
Toucan peeking over a wallOnly the head shows above a line of underscores. 3 lines, 22 wide.
Toucan tracksTwo footprints, each an X: two toes point forward and two back. 3 lines, 10 wide.
Show all 22 pieces (10 more)
Medium, 5 to 9 lines 9
Big toucan headThe eye has a ring and the bill is three rows tall with a rounded tip. 6 lines, 31 wide.
Toucan asleep, a ballA ball of feathers on a branch with the tip of the tail standing over it. 6 lines, 16 wide.
Toucan facing leftThe branch toucan turned round, bill to the left. 9 lines, 15 wide.
Toucan head with its billA round head and the long bill. 5 lines, 26 wide.
Toucan in a tree hollowThe head looks out of a hole in a trunk and the bill sticks out past the bark. 6 lines, 21 wide.
Toucan on a branchFacing right, feet on the branch, tail hanging behind it. 9 lines, 18 wide.
Toucan with a berryThe bill is open and a berry sits at its tip. 5 lines, 22 wide.
Toucan with a dark backThe branch toucan with number signs down its back. 9 lines, 18 wide.
Two toucans fencingTwo birds on one branch, bill tips nearly touching. 6 lines, 30 wide.
Large, 10 lines and up 1
Big toucan, side viewThe largest piece: ringed eye, three-row bill, a wing of colons and a long tail. 14 lines, 33 wide.
How this list was compiled: Own work: every piece was drawn for this page on 2026-10-15 and checked in a monospaced font; none is copied from an archive or another site, none is traced from a picture, and no toucan from a named brand, show, book or game is drawn. The toucans share one construction of this site's own: a letter o for the eye, and a bill at least as long as the head that thins toward its tip, from number signs to equals signs to hyphens. What a toucan looks like and the facts on the page were read on 2026-10-15 in Wikipedia's article Toucan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toucan, CC BY-SA 4.0): the large bill is the hallmark of toucans and in some large species is more than half the length of the body; it is light, built of bone struts filled with foam-like keratin; researchers found it a highly efficient thermoregulation system, and it lets the bird sit in one spot and reach the fruit in range; toucans eat mostly fruit and also take insects, small lizards and the eggs and nestlings of smaller birds; they nest in tree hollows and in holes excavated by other animals; their toes are in pairs, the first and fourth turned backward; they sometimes fence with their bills; the bird's name, from Tupi, refers to its frog-like croaking call; a toucan can snap its tail forward until it touches the head and sleeps in that posture, looking like a ball of feathers with the tip of the tail sticking out over the head. Every character is one of the 95 printable ASCII characters, U+0020 to U+007E. Squash-proof means no line starts with a space and no two spaces touch. The comment box badge means at most 8 lines and 30 columns: a rule of thumb of this site, not a promise about any app. Licence: own work