African barbets | Lybiidae

Afrikaanse baardvogels | Barbudos africanos

Stocky birds with a large head, a short neck and a heavy bill, broad at the base and notched along the cutting edge in many species; a ring of stiff bristles surrounds the bill base and nostrils and gives the group its name. Food is mainly fruit, figs above all, with the berries of the branch-growing mistletoes and, in the breeding season, insects and termites; the seeds pass or are regurgitated undamaged, so the family has a share in the spread of both plant groups. The nest cavity is chiselled out by the birds themselves in dead, soft wood: in the tinkerbirds a round hole barely two centimetres across in a dead trunk or branch, often on its underside. The voice is monotonous and carries far — in the small species a tapping or knocking note repeated on one pitch for minutes on end, in the larger ones a duet in which male and female place their notes in turn, with the head swaying, the throat puffed and the wings flicked. Black and white are combined with red or yellow on forehead, throat or rump, the bill is pale to horn-coloured, and young birds largely lack that head pattern. Outside the breeding season pairs and family parties stay together and roost communally in a hole.