Brown-headed barbet

The Brown-headed barbet (Psilopogon zeylanicus) is an Asian barbet species native to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests. It is widespread from the Terai in both Nepal and India to Sri Lanka, and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.[1] It is an arboreal species of gardens and wooded country which eats fruit and insects. It is fairly tolerant of humans and often seen in city parks. It nests in a tree hole, laying 2-4 eggs. It forages on mangos, ripe jackfruit, papaya, banana, figs and similar cultivated fruit trees. Its habitat includes urban and country gardens though it tends to eschew heavy forest. It nests in a suitable hole in a tree that it will often excavate. Both sexes incubate the eggs and often communicate with each other using their Kura, kura calls.[2]

Brown-headed barbet
Calls recorded in Bharatpur, India
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Megalaimidae
Genus: Psilopogon
Species:
P. zeylanicus
Binomial name
Psilopogon zeylanicus
(Gmelin, 1788)
Synonyms

Megalaima zeylanica[2]

The adult has a streaked brown head, neck and breast, and a yellow eye patch. The rest of the plumage is green. It is 27 cm (11 in) long with a large head, short neck and short tail.

Its call is a repetitive kutroo…kutroo…kutroo, but silent in the winter. Others take up the call when one starts.

Local names

In Sinhala language, the brown-headed barbet is known as polos kottoruwa - පොලොස් කොට්ටෝරුවා.

References
  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Psilopogon zeylanicus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22681597A92912739.
  2. Ali, Sálim; Daniel, J. C. (2002). The Book of Indian Birds (Thirteenth ed.). New Delhi: Bombay Natural History Society and Oxford University Press. p. 194. ISBN 9780195665239.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.