Toucan-barbets | Semnornithidae

Toekanbaardvogels | Barbudos tucán | Toucan-barbets

A small family of two species, one of which occurs in the region: the Toucan Barbet, found only in cloud forest on the western slope of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador. Toucan-barbets stand between the New World barbets and the toucans and were recognised as a family of their own only on the basis of DNA studies. They are stocky, large-headed birds with a short, heavy bill; in this species it is pale with a dark tip. The plumage is colourful: a black head with a white stripe behind the eye, a blue-grey throat, a bright red breast, an olive-brown back and a yellow rump, and the male has a small black tuft on the nape. They feed mainly on fruit and berries, supplemented with insects, and forage in pairs or small groups in the middle and upper levels of the forest. Pairs sing in duet with loud, hollow, honking notes. They nest in cavities they excavate themselves in dead or rotting wood, and young from earlier broods sometimes help to raise the chicks. The eggs are white. Trapping for the cage-bird trade and forest loss have caused the species to decline.