Red-headed Barbet - BirdForum Opus

Male, subspecies salvini
Photo by Stanley Jones
La Cinchona, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica, March 2008

Eubucco bourcierii

Identification

Female, subspecies aequatorialis
Photo by jeffworman
Mindo, Ecuador, January 2017

16 cm (6¼ in)
Male: distinctive yellow bill and red head, with yellow breast.
Female also has a yellow bill and a distinctive facial pattern: black above bill, blue-gray cheek patches and yellow on top of head. Her throat and breast are yellowish divided by orange band.
Both have green backs and wings, with green streaks on belly.

Distribution

Central and South America
Central America: Costa Rica, Panama
South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Female, subspecies salvini
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Bosque de Paz Lodge, Bosque del Toro, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica, 7 December 2022

There are 6 subspecies^[1]:

E. b. salvini:

Highlands of Costa Rica and western Panama

E. b. anomalus:

Eastern Panama and possibly adjacent north-western Colombia

E. b. occidentalis:

Western Andes of Colombia

E. b. bourcierii:

Andes of central Colombia to western Venezuela

E. b. aequatorialis:

Coastal mountains and Western Andes of Ecuador

E. b. orientalis:

Eastern Andes of Ecuador and northern Peru (Cajamarca and Amazonas)

Habitat

Undergrowth and middle elevations of mature cloud and fragmented forests, secondary growth. Around trails and clearings.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of fruit, including bananas. They visit feeders.

References

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Avibase
BirdForum Member observations
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Nov 2017)

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Red-headed Barbet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 5 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Red-headed_Barbet

External Links

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