Red-vented Barbet

The red-vented barbet is a large Indochinese barbet 29–34 cm long. Its heavy-bodied plumage is predominantly green to bronze, with a brown head, greyish patches on the throat and face and a narrow blue line above the eyes. A vivid red patch beneath the tail gives the species its English name, although this mark can be hidden on a perched bird. Its strong bill and large head suit both cavity excavation and handling bulky forest fruits (Short and Horne 2014, as reported in Wikipedia's general species account).

Endemic to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, it inhabits moist lowland and montane forest. Research in Lộc Bắc forest, Lâm Đồng Province, found adults bringing fleshy fruit, insects, spiders and some small vertebrates to nestlings; recorded plant foods included figs, Litsea, Cinnamomum, Knema and Wrightia flowers. Both parents provisioned the brood throughout the day, sometimes making more than fifty feeding visits. Plant material was offered from the first days and became increasingly important as chicks developed (Trounov and Vassilieva 2014).