| Prong-billed barbet | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Semnornithidae |
| Genus: | Semnornis |
| Species: | S. frantzii |
| Binomial name | |
| Semnornis frantzii (Sclater, PL, 1864) | |
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The prong-billed barbet (Semnornis frantzii) is a distinctive, relatively large-billed bird native to humid highland forest of Costa Rica and western Panama.
The prong-billed barbet was traditionally placed in family Capitonidae sensu lato with both Neotropic and Old World barbets. However, morphological, hybridization, and DNA studies have confirmed that this arrangement is paraphyletic; New World barbets are more closely related to toucans than they are to Old World barbets. Therefore New World (Capitonidae sensu stricto ), African (Lybiidae), and Asian (Megalaimidae) barbets were each accorded their own families. The prong-billed barbet and the toucan barbet (Semnornis ramphastinus) were placed in the new family Semnornithidae. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The prong-billed barbet is monotypic. [6] Its specific epithet commemorates the German naturalist Alexander von Frantzius.[ citation needed ]
The prong-billed barbet is 17 to 18.5 cm (6.7 to 7.3 in) long and weighs about 60 to 70 g (2.1 to 2.5 oz). Its bill is silvery gray to bluish with a dark tip; a notch on the tip of the mandible provides its English name. The maxilla has a hooked tip and a notch on the side. Adults have a dull golden brown crown, brownish olive nape and upper back, and olive green lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts. Males have a glossy black tuft of feathers at the rear of the crown; females lack it. Both sexes have dull slaty black lores, cheeks, and chin. The sides of their head, their neck, and their upper breast are buffy olive that becomes yellowish on the lower breast. Their belly's center is pale yellow and their flanks dull grayish with a pale yellowish wash. Their tail is dull green and their wings dusky. Immatures are overall duller than adults and the black areas of the adult's face are grayer in immatures. [7]
The prong-billed barbet is found in the mountains from Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilarán to western Panama's Veraguas Province. In elevation it mostly ranges between 750 and 2,450 m (2,500 and 8,000 ft) on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, between 1,500 and 1,450 m (4,900 and 4,800 ft) on the Pacific side, and between 1,500 and 2,250 m (4,900 and 7,400 ft) in Panama. (Locally it occurs somewhat lower in both countries.) It inhabits the interior and edges of extremely humid montane evergreen forest, a landscape characterized by many epiphytes and mosses and frequent fog. [7]
The prong-billed barbet is non-migratory. [7]
In the non-breeding season prong-billed barbets forage in flocks of up to 12 individuals, and roost communally in tree cavities with up to 16 in close association. [7]
Prong-billed barbets usually forage in the forest canopy but sometimes do so lower at the edges. Their diet is almost entirely fruit, but young nestlings are fed insects. Small fruits are swallowed whole or only the interior may be squeezed out. Large fruits are torn apart to eat. [7]
Prong-billed barbets are monogamous and territorial in the breeding season. Their breeding season begins when pairs court in March and they begin excavating nest cavities in trees about in mid-month. Cavities are sited between 3 and 18 m (10 and 60 ft) above ground. The clutch size is four or five. The incubation period is 14 to 15 days; the time from hatch to fledging is not known. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for nestlings and fledglings. [7]
The prong-billed barbet's song has been described as "a deep cwa-cwa-cwa-cwa...repeated many times" and as "a resonant, far-carrying, rather throaty cwa-cwa-cwa-cwa". Both sexes sing, frequently in duet, and also in a "chorus" by several birds. The species has a variety of calls including "low, dry rattling notes", " a nasal, squalling kwaaaah, and "a skurr; bark-like chuk notes; and an alarm cackle." [7]
The IUCN has assessed the prong-billed barbet as being of Least Concern. It has a small range, but its estimated population of between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. [1] "It is common within its range...and occurs in several parks and reserves in Costa Rica." [7]
Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes, the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of which the Picidae make up about half.
The emerald toucanet or northern emerald toucanet is a species of near-passerine bird in the Ramphastidae family occurring in mountainous regions of Mexico and Central America.
The collaredaraçari is a toucan, a near-passerine bird. It breeds from southern Mexico to Panama; also Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Costa Rica.
The purple-throated mountaingem is a species of hummingbird in tribe Lampornithini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama.
The toucan barbet is a barbet native to western Ecuador and Colombia. Along with the prong-billed barbet, it forms the family Semnornithidae, and is closely related to the toucans. It is a medium-sized barbet with a robust yellow bill. It has striking plumage, having a black head with grey throat and nape, red breast and upper belly, yellow lower belly and grey wings and tail.
The fiery-billed araçari is a toucan, a near-passerine bird. It breeds only on the Pacific slopes of southern Costa Rica and western Panama. The binomial commemorates the German naturalist Alexander von Frantzius.
Alexander von Frantzius was a German physician and naturalist.
The silver-throated tanager is a species of passerine bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and northeastern Peru. It inhabits mossy forests, montane evergreen forests, tropical lowland evergreen forests and forest edges, along with tall secondary forests and disturbed habitat with remnant trees and forest. It is 13 centimetres (5.1 in) long and weighs 22 grams (0.78 oz) on average, and shows slight sexual dimorphism, with duller female plumage. Adult males are mainly bright yellow, with a silvery-white throat bordered above with a black stripe on the cheeks, black streaking on the back, and green edges to the wings and tail. Juveniles are duller and greener.
The mountain elaenia is a small passerine bird in the tyrant flycatcher family. It breeds in highlands from Guatemala to Colombia and western Venezuela. The scientific name celebrates the German physician and naturalist, Alexander von Frantzius.
The wrenthrush or zeledonia is a unique species of nine-primaried oscine bird which is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama.
The white-tailed emerald is a species of hummingbird in the "emeralds", tribe Trochilini of subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama.
The blue-throated goldentail, also known as the blue-throated sapphire, is a species of hummingbird in the family Trochilidae. It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and heavily degraded former forest.
The emerald tanager is a species of bird in the tanager family Thraupidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama. Described by the English ornithologists PL Sclater and Osbert Salvin in 1869, it is a medium-sized species that has a length of 10.6–13 cm (4.2–5.1 in) and a mass of 18–20.5 g (0.63–0.72 oz). It can be identified by its bright green plumage, with black streaking on the back and wings, and a black auricular patch and beak. It also has yellow on the crown and rump. The species shows slight sexual dimorphism, with the females being duller and having yellow-green in place of yellow on the head.
The scarlet-crowned barbet is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Amazonian Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The red-headed barbet is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The miombo pied barbet is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae. It is found in south-central Africa.
The hairy-breasted barbet is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae. It is found throughout the Africa tropical rainforest.
The toucan-barbets are the small bird genus Semnornis. This was often included in the paraphyletic barbets but recently usually considered a distinct family Semnornithidae; alternatively, all barbets might be moved to the toucan family Ramphastidae as a subfamily, Semnornithinae. It contains only two species, the toucan barbet and the prong-billed barbet.
Ramphastides is an infraorder of the order Piciformes that includes toucans and barbets. Formerly, the barbets have been classified in a single family, the Capitonidae. However, this has turned out to be paraphyletic with regard to toucans, which resulted in the Capitonidae being split into several families.
The Talamanca hummingbird is a species of hummingbird in the "mountain gems", tribe Lampornithini in subfamily Trochilinae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama.
