New World Barbets

New World barbets are chubby, colorful birds from Central and South America, known for their bristles around heavy bills and their strong relationship to toucans, residing in the Capitonidae family within the Piciformes order. These primarily non-migratory birds prefer humid tropical forests and range from lowland to montane and temperate areas, nesting in tree cavities where they lay two to four eggs. Their diet mainly consists of fruit from a variety of trees and shrubs—as many as 60 species, but they also eat insects and occasionally small animals like frogs and can adapt their feeding habits to food availability changes. Notably, barbets play a significant role in seed dispersal. Human impact is minimal, yet habitat destruction poses risks for certain species with three, namely the white-mantled, five-coloured, and scarlet-banded barbets, facing threats from deforestation and are listed by the IUCN as endangered or vulnerable. Regarding their taxonomy, New World barbets have fossil records dating back to the Miocene, and while they were formerly grouped with their barbet relatives from Africa and Asia, as well as the toucans, modern classification only includes true New World barbets in the Capitonidae, separating them based on lineage divergence. The genera Capito and Eubucco feature several species, like the scarlet-crowned barbet and red-headed barbet, each with their own distinct color patterns and habitat preferences.