Red-and-yellow Barbet
A species of Terrestrial and Yellow-billed Barbets Scientific name : Trachyphonus erythrocephalus Genus : Terrestrial and Yellow-billed Barbets
Red-and-yellow Barbet, A species of Terrestrial and Yellow-billed Barbets
Botanical name: Trachyphonus erythrocephalus
Genus: Terrestrial and Yellow-billed Barbets
Content
Description General Info
Photo By Lip Kee , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original
Description
Red-and-yellow barbet adult males have distinctive plumage made up black with spotted white, red and yellow. It has a black forehead and crown with a slight crest. The nape is orange and red with black spots. The side of the neck is red, going into yellow. The back is mostly black with white spots. The tail is a blackish brown with up to eight cream spots forming bars. The under side of the tail is yellow with black bars. The chin and throat are yellow, and there is a black patch at the centre of the throat. The throat is bordered by areas with more orange areas. The breast is orange to red-orange, becoming more yellow at the sides, with a dark band with white spots crossing through the middle. The lower breast and belly are yellow. The wings are black with brown wing feathers. All feathers on the wing have white spots, giving a spotted or banded appearance. The long beak is typically red. The skin around the eyes is a dark grey or black, while the eyes themselves can be a yellow brown, a dark brown, a red brown or a shade in between. The legs are a blue-grey, and the feet are the same colour. The female is similar to the male, but is, overall, much duller, with less red and orange, and more yellow and white. Specifically, females lack the throat patch, and typically lack the crown. Young birds are also duller- they typically have less red and orange, as with the female. The spots on the back are less white, and all blacks are more brown. The eyes are typically grey.
Size
23 cm
Life Expectancy
3-6 years
Nest Placement
Tree
Feeding Habits
Red-and-yellow Barbet's diet is diverse, including fruits like figs, various insects, spiders, lizards, and even small birds. Red-and-yellow Barbet forages for household refuse and demonstrates unique adaptability by consuming human food waste, such as cereal and chicken bones.
Habitat
Red-and-yellow Barbet thrive in diverse terrestrial habitats ranging from open woodland and scrubland to the edges of arid zones with occasional lush vegetation near streams. These birds are adapted to regions where uneven terrain, rocky outcrops, and termite mounds provide ecological niches. They also frequent steeply channeled areas and wooded grasslands, where they can be found at varying altitudes from near sea level to elevations up to 2130 meters.
Dite type
Omnivorous
General Info
Feeding Habits
Bird food type
Distribution Area
The nominate subspecies, T. e. erythrocephalus, is found from central Kenya to north-east Tanzania. T. e. versicolor is found in southeast South Sudan, northeast Uganda, southwest Ethiopia and north Kenya. T. e. shelleyi is found in Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. The species avoids both very open areas and areas of dense woodland, instead preferring broken terrain such as riverbeds and cliffs or termite mounds. It nests and roosts in tunnels, and forages on or close to the ground.
Species Status
Not globally threatened.
Photo By Lip Kee , used under CC-BY-SA-2.0 /Cropped and compressed from original