The Family of Barbets !

The family of Barbets!

Barbets get their name from the fine bristles at the bases of their stout sharp bills. According to S. Dillon Ripley,  there are sixty six species of Barbets found from Central America to Northern Southern America , Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia eastward only to Borneo and Bali. They belong to the family of Capitonidae (order Piciformes).  There are about a dozen species in India. However, I have so far been able to click only four of them in the Chandigarh Region (Punjab, Haryana and Himachal). These are the Great Barbet, Brown-headed Barbet, the Blue-throated and the Coppersmith Barbet.

Common attributes of Barbets include their big-head with short tails, measuring from 9 to 30 cms, their posture of sitting stolidly on treetops, their loud continuous repetitive calls jerking their heads and tails,  and their food habits  primarily include fruits and berries with  insects mostly winged termites, lizards and birds’ eggs during the breeding season providing proteins for their chicks  and their building of nests in cavities of trees chiseled with their stout and sharp beaks similar to woodpeckers.  (However, one genus, Caloramphus, is said to excavate nesting holes out of termite nests, and an African form is reported to nest in holes in the ground--(T. margaritatus) vide Friedmann (1930: 463)).  They are either green or brownish with splashes of bright colours or white and their eggs are white and rounded, thin-shelled and rather glossy. The flight of these non-migratory birds is fluttering, often appearing clumsy, and not long sustained.

The Great Barbet

The great Barbet is the largest of all. Plump with a short neck, large head and short tail, Great Barbet has a blue head, large yellow bill, brown back and breast, green-streaked yellow belly and red vent while rest of the plumage is green.  It is found in lower-to-middle altitudes of the Himalayas ranging across Northern India, Nepal and Bhutan, Bangladesh, and some parts of South East Asia as far as Laos. The accompanying photograph was clicked in Chaki Mod in Himachal Pradesh where they are found in plenty. I have also observed this bird in Chandigarh, Panchkula and Thapli Village. Its calls include “key-oh”, “keeab” and a repetitive “piou- piou- piou- piou”.

The Brown-headed Barbet

The brown-headed barbet also known as the Green Barbet measures 25 to 30 cms and weighs 100 to 140 grams. Its overall plumage is green, while its head, throat, neck and breast are brownish with prominent pale streaks on head, mantle and breast. There is distinctive large yellowish orange patch surrounding the eyes. The feet are grayish yellow. Its call is either twice repeated ‘pro-kok’ or repeated “kutroo-kuttroo” sound. It is wide-spread in the Indian sub-continent and is found both in urban gardens and countryside being fairly tolerant of humans. .  It is closely related to the  White-cheeked Barbet  that has prominent white cheek patch and white spots on the under parts and is  familiar to bird-watchers from South India and the Lineated Barbet  found in  the Himalayas, E and NE  bold white streaking on head, upper mantle and breast extending to the centre of the belly

 The accompanying photograph was clicked from my balcony in Modern Housing Complex, Manimajra, and Chandgarh

Blue-throated Barbet

The Blue-throated barbets have blue, green and red plumage and measure 23 to 28 cms weighing 78 to 103 grams. They are widespread residents of hills of Himalayas, Thailand, Central Laos and Vietnam.  They frequent evergreen forest and deciduous forests, gardens, orchids, teak forests and cities with fruiting trees.

The accompanying photograph was clicked in Chaki Mor in Himachal Pradesh.

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Coppersmith Barbet

The Coppersmith Barbet is the tiniest of the Barbets in India. It is a short, stocky bird, with a leaf-green about the size of a fat sparrow with a crimson breast and forehead, a lemon-yellow throat that allows it to remain well-camouflaged in the canopy of a tree. The bird gets its name from its distinctive call which is said to resemble the sound that a coppersmith makes by beating sheets of copper with a mallet. This barbet makes this sound – a rather monotonous one that only varies in loudness and tempo – by inflating a patch of bare skin on both sides of its throat, with the beak remaining shut.

The accompanying photograph was clicked in Thapli, Haryana.