Howdy, friends.  This week we continue our tour of barbets, but are switching back to the western hemisphere with the toucan barbet.  This bird lives in a little sliver of montane forest in Colombia and Ecuador, and has gotta have the smallest range of the barbets we have covered, at least as far as I can remember.  Per our good friends at the Birdlife Datazone it lives in about 116,000 sq km, and lives at altitudes of 1,400–2,400 m (4,600–7,900 ft).

Within this small range the bird the bird makes the most of its space, living in primary and secondary forests, as well as forest edges and clearings.  It forages and hunts at all levels of the forest, with some preference shown for the higher strata.  The toucan barbet eats a wide variety of fruits, with 62 species identified in its diet.  It also eats a variety of insects, reptiles and even small vertebrates, plus random stuff like nectar and flower petals, which I believe are a first in our studies.  The barbet forages in groups, sometimes joining a flock with members of other species.  

Home life back at the nest is highly cooperative.  During the breeding season, a breeding pair will usually be helped out by one of their older offspring who sticks around to help raise later generations of young.  Outside the breeding season, toucan barbets will form little families of three to six and work together to forage, raise young, and defend their territory from other members of their species or any other intruders.  This cooperative behavior is apparently rare among frugivorous birds, although I remember an African bird we learned about doing so as well.  That previous WPT subject may not have been a big fruit eater or may be a similar outlier in that respect.  They will loudly call and beat their large bills against trees to scare off interlopers, and as a final effort will mob it from the air.  This behavior is more common outside the breeding season, when there are more birds in a family available for mobbing.  

Like other barbets, the toucan barbet excavates nests in trees.  Because it prefers mature trees of a certain width, deforestation is a threat to its survival.  That said, it seems to be pretty adaptable when left alone, maybe its one of those birds that would be happy with a nice rotten fencepost or a birdbox if it came down to it.  Both parents will incubate eggs.  In families without helpers, the male will take on more of this duty.  Eggs will incubate for 15 days and the young will fledge 45 days later.  If the climate allows, a breeding pair may have as many as three rounds of young in a year.  

The toucan barbet faces competition for nests and threats to its delicious young from the plate billed mountain toucan, which one would think has a sense of toucan hospitality, but no.  Its young also fall prey to capuchin monkeys and local squirrels.  

Our bird is listed as “near threatened” by the IUCN, and faces pressure from deforestation for various human purposes, as well as the attendant habitat fragmentation. In some parts of its range it is considered extinct.  Of particular concern is trapping for the exotic bird trade, which is considered the number one threat.  

Be good to yourselves and others, folks.  Have a good weekend.   

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