Howdy, friends.  I hope everyone is doing well despite everything.  Your humble host has been snowed in all week.  The city didn’t plow our street, my neighbors have been derelict at best in their duty to shovel their section of sidewalk, and Mrs K can’t risk going outside, slipping, and setting her recovery back.  I’m the only one in a condition to leave the house and I’ve been carrying the dog a couple of blocks to a street where sidewalks are clear so he can walk.  He has repaid my efforts by climbing to the top of the highest frozen snowbank he can find in order to relieve himself, leaving me risking life and limb to retrieve his poo.  Despite all that, aside from a little bit too much boredom/stress-induced drinking, I’m keeping it together more or less.  

Anyway, birds.  This week I am back on barbets with our newest subject, the gilded barbet. This bird lives in the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.  I’ve got a couple of new forest terms for you all this week that I came across while learning about our bird.  It lives in varzea forest and terra firme forest.  Varzea forest is land which is seasonally flooded by the Amazon river and, despite the name, can refer to a variety of biomes subject to regular flooding.  Said flooding is no joke, raising the local water level 10–15 m (33–49 ft).  On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, terra firme forest is forest which is not impacted by flooding.  This term applies to a lot of the Amazon basin and covers a variety of biomes as well, from cloud forests to the dry scrubby areas at the edges of the Amazon.  

The gilded barbet eats mostly fruits such as figs and mangoes.  Studies have shown that about 18% of its diet consists of arthropods, and it will eat nectar as well.  Breeding habits are thought to be similar to those of the black-spotted barbet, which we might have covered.  In the case of the latter bird, both parents will work to excavate a nest in a dead tree or other convenient location about 5 to 12 m (16 to 39 ft) aboveground, and the parents will take turns incubating the eggs.  Once the barbets move on, these nests will be used by other local species, making the barbets important to the local ecosystem.  Unfortunately our knowledge of both of these apparently very common birds is spotty, so that’s the best I could do. 

The gilded barbet does not migrate and is considered “of least concern” by the IUCN.  The bird’s range is gargantuan, and although the population appears to be decreasing, it doesn’t seem to be doing so quickly enough to warrant reclassification.  

Stay safe, stay warm, be kind to yourselves and others.  Have a good weekend, everyone.  

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