Scarlet-crowned Barbet

Appearance

The scarlet-crowned barbet is approximately 19 cm long and weighs 46 to 75 g. Like all barbets, it is a chunky bird with a heavy bill. Both sexes are mostly olive green with a whitish chin and orange-yellow throat and upper breast. The male's red crown extends down the nape. Its underparts below the upper breast are olive, gray, and yellow. The female has a white crown that transitions to olive on the nape and is otherwise similar to the male. The immature is a grayer olive and has an olive crown with traces of red or white according to sex.

Distribution

The scarlet-crowned barbet is found in the central Amazon Basin. In the west it extends from the Andean foothills of southern Colombia through eastern Ecuador to east-central Peru. East and south it reaches the Negro River in northwestern Brazil, the municipality of Tefé on the upper Amazon in central Brazil, and Acre in west-central Brazil.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the scarlet-crowned barbet as being of Least Concern. It is fairly common to common, occurs in several protected areas, and is adapted to shifing habitats.

Habitat

It tends to stay near water and uses all levels of the forest from the ground to the canopy. In elevation it ranges from the lowlands to only 500 to 600 m in the Andean foothills.

Reproduction

The scarlet-crowned barbet breeds at almost any time of year in some part of its range, with the exception of September to November. Its nest has not been described though all members of the family nest in tree cavities that they excavate.

Food

Though the details of the scarlet-crowned barbet's diet are not known, it does eat berries, fruit, and insects. It gleans branches, twigs, live foliage, and clusters of dead leaves. It seldom joins mixed-species foraging flocks.