Howdy, friends.  We are continuing our impromptu tour of the barbets with another subject that is enchantingly colorful but about which information seems mercifully scarce.  I don’t know about you all, but my life just doesn’t want to slow down and grant me the time to write a detailed header.  Anyway, birds. This week’s subject is the red-and-yellow barbet.  This barbet lives in eastern Africa, with most populations located in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, with some spillover into neighboring countries. 

The red-and-yellow barbet prefers dry areas with intermittent trees and thorny bushes.  Wikipedia says it likes “broken terrain,” which with great shame I must admit I needed the stupid AI-search’s help to find more info about.  This is terrain that used to be contiguous woodland but has been interrupted and broken into smaller chunks, usually by human activity.  Since these birds like neither dense forest nor open plains, it makes sense that this relatively new kind of landscape would appeal to them.  They are well-adapted to living among humans, preferring gardens and farms.  I could not find any info on if they are considered pests in this context.

The birds are omnivorous, eating seeds, fruit and invertebrates.  They are apparently known for their acrobatic feeding style, sometimes hanging upside down from a branch to eat fruit.  These barbets nest in cavities, either pre-existing or which they have excavated.  They will make these cavities in dead trees, in the ground or in termite mounds, whose residents they will eat either on the ground or catch on the wing.  They are social birds, and will pair up during the rainy season to mate which varies based on where they live.  In addition to their song, often sung as a duet, they will use their beaks to hammer tree branches and use the resulting sound to communicate and mark their territory.  

Both parents will incubate the chicks, which will hatch after approximately two weeks.  The chicks will hang out with their parents for about another month before striking out on their own.  The red-and-yellow barbet is considered “of least concern” by the IUCN on account of its very large range, around three million square kilometers.  Oh, right. Finally, although a quick search didn’t yield any details, red-and-yellow barbet feathers are incorporated into clothing by the Maasai people.

Have a good weekend, everyone.  Take care of yourselves.  

Links: https://tinyurl.com/556ts692, https://tinyurl.com/s8bn4svd, https://tinyurl.com/2tetzf7a, https://tinyurl.com/4nyk7pm2