Indochinese Barbet

The Indochinese barbet is a compact, heavy-billed barbet about 22 cm long. Its body is predominantly green, darker above than below, while the head is brightly patterned with an electric-blue face, pale yellow crown and throat and thick black eyebrows. The stout bill is adapted for handling fruit and excavating nest holes. Formerly treated as a form of the black-browed barbet, it is now recognised as a distinct species centred on the Annamite highlands (The World Birds species account; Wikipedia, general species account).

It occurs in Vietnam and Laos and reaches far eastern Cambodia, where it is associated chiefly with montane tropical and subtropical forest. Birds remain high in the canopy and can be sluggish and difficult to locate visually, so their loud repeated calls are often the first sign of their presence. Across its range the species eats fruit and insects, moving among fruiting trees within forest. Its restricted highland distribution separates it geographically and ecologically from several lower-elevation barbets (Fat Birder species synopsis; The World Birds species account).