Birds
Barbet
Lybiidae, Megalaimidae, Capitonidae · also called barbets, coppersmith barbet
A coppersmith barbet perches beside its own hand-excavated nest hole, calling out a loud, metallic tonk-tonk-tonk that carries across the forest canopy, a sound so mechanical-sounding that early observers assumed it came from a distant tradesman rather than a small, brilliantly coloured bird.
Overview
Barbets are stocky, big-billed birds split across several related families found in the forests of Africa, tropical Asia, and the Americas. Close relatives of toucans, they combine a fruit-and-insect diet with a woodpecker-like habit of carving their own nest cavities directly into dead wood.
A small bird with an outsized voice
Few forest birds are as easy to hear and as hard to see as a calling barbet, whose loud, mechanical, endlessly repeated call rings out from deep cover long before the bird itself comes into view.
Status
Least Concern — widespread and common across suitable forest habitat throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Barbet: common questions
Are barbets related to toucans?
Yes, barbets are close relatives of toucans, both belonging to the same broader group of fruit-eating, cavity-nesting birds, though barbets are generally much smaller and stockier, and the group is split across several separate families found in Africa, Asia, and the Americas rather than being confined to a single continent like toucans.
Why is the coppersmith barbet named after a metalworker?
The coppersmith barbet produces a loud, metallic, relentlessly repeated tonk-tonk-tonk call that closely resembles the sound of a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer, a distinctive vocal habit that gave the species its common name long before anyone had a clearer view of the small, brightly coloured bird actually making the sound.
Do barbets build nests like woodpeckers?
Yes, a barbet typically excavates its own cavity nest in dead or decaying wood using its heavy bill, a woodpecker-like nesting habit shared broadly across the group even though barbets belong to entirely separate bird families from true woodpeckers.
Why does the greater honeyguide target barbet nests?
Barbet nest cavities offer the greater honeyguide, a brood parasite that never raises its own young, a secure, already-excavated cavity in which to lay a single egg, leaving the unwitting barbet pair to incubate and feed a chick that is not their own.