Capito

For other uses, see Capito (disambiguation).

Capito
female Black-spotted barbet (C. niger)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Capitonidae
Genus:	Capito Vieillot, 1816
Type species
"Tamatia à tête et gorge rouge" Buffon =Bucco niger Müller, PLS, 1776
Species
11, see text

Capito is a genus of birds in the family Capitonidae. They are found in humid forests in South America, with a single species extending into eastern Panama. Slightly larger than the members of the genus Eubucco , members of the genus Capito are all sexually dimorphic and thickset, and have stubby pale bills that often are tipped black. With the exception of the somewhat aberrant scarlet-crowned barbet, black, red, orange, yellow and white are the dominating colours in their plumage, and males have at least partially black backs. Typically seen singly or in pairs, they are primarily frugivorous, but also take arthropods.

Taxonomy

The genus Capito was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot to accommodate a single species, the "Tamatia à tête et gorge rouge" that had been described in 1780 by the French naturalist, the Comte de Buffon. ^{[1] [2]} This is the black-spotted barbet that had been assigned the binomial name Bucco niger by the German zoologist Philipp Statius Müller in 1776 and is the type species of the genus. ^{[3] [4]} The genus name is from Latin capito, capitonis meaning "big-headed". ^[5]

Species

The genus contains the following 11 species: ^[6]

Image	Scientific name	Common Name	Distribution
	Capito auratus	Gilded barbet	Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela
	Capito aurovirens	Scarlet-crowned barbet	Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
	Capito brunneipectus	Brown-chested barbet	central Amazon Basin, eastern Amazonas–western Pará states, North Region, Brazil
	Capito dayi	Black-girdled barbet	Bolivia and Brazil.
	Capito hypoleucus	White-mantled barbet	Colombia
	Capito maculicoronatus	Spot-crowned barbet	Colombia and Panama
	Capito niger	Black-spotted barbet	northeastern South America, ranging as far south as the Amazon River and as far west as the Branco River
	Capito quinticolor	Five-colored barbet	western Colombia and far north-western Ecuador
	Capito squamatus	Orange-fronted barbet	western Ecuador and extreme southwestern Colombia
	Capito wallacei	Scarlet-banded barbet	south-western Loreto, Peru
	Capito fitzpatricki	Sira barbet	eastern Andes of Ucayali Department, Peru

References

1. Vieillot, Louis Pierre (1816). Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire (in French). Paris: Deterville/self. p. 27.
2. Buffon, Georges-Louis Leclerc de (1780). "Tamatia à tête et gorge rouge". Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (in French). Vol. 13. Paris: De l'Imprimerie Royale. p. 143.
3. Statius Müller, Philipp Ludwig (1776). Des Ritters Carl von Linné Königlich Schwedischen Lelbarztes uc. uc. vollständigen Natursystems Supplements und Register-Band über alle sechs Theile oder Classen des Thierreichs mit einer ausführlichen Erklärung ausgefertiget (in German). Nürnberg: Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe. p. 89.
4. Peters, James Lee, ed. (1948). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 6. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 24.
5. Jobling, James A. "Capito". The Key to Scientific Names. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 2 October 2025.
6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (February 2025). "Jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, honeyguides". IOC World Bird List Version 15.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 1 October 2025.

• Schulenberg, T., D. Stotz, D. Lane, J. O'Neill, & T. Parker III. (2007). Birds of Peru. Christopher Helm Publishers. ISBN   978-0-7136-8673-9