The black-eared barbet (''Psilopogon duvaucelii'') is a barbet in the family

Megalaimidae The Asian barbets are a family of bird species, the Megalaimidae, comprising two genera with 35 species native to the forests of the Indomalayan realm from Tibet to Indonesia. They were once clubbed with all barbets in the family Capitonidae bu ...

native to

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

, Sumatra and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. It inhabits shrubland and forest up to an altitude of . Because of its large range it is listed as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

Characteristics

The black-eared barbet has olive-green plumage, a blue throat and nape, a black beak and a large black streak between the eyes. Below the eyes it has red spots encircled by black. It is long and weighs .

Taxonomy

''Bucco duvaucelii'' was the scientific name proposed by René Lesson in 1830 who described a barbet from Sumatra. The generic name ''Psilopogon'' was proposed by

Salomon Müller Salomon Müller (7 April 1804 – 29 December 1864) was a German naturalist. He was born in Heidelberg, and died in Freiburg im Breisgau. Müller was the son of a saddler in Heidelberg. Along with Heinrich Boie and Heinrich Christian Macklot, he w ...

in 1836, initially for a

fire-tufted barbet The fire-tufted barbet (''Psilopogon pyrolophus'') is a species of bird in the Asian barbet family Megalaimidae. It is native to Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra, where it inhabits tropical moist lowland and montane forests. It has been listed a ...

(''P. pyrolophus'') from Sumatra. In subsequent decades, about 19 generic names were proposed for barbet species, including ''Megalaima'' by

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

in 1849 and ''Mezobucco'' by George Ernest Shelley in 1889. Taxonomists used different generic names when describing barbets in collections of

natural history museums A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more ...

. ''Mezzobucco duvaucelii gigantorhinus'' was proposed by

Harry C. Oberholser Harry Church Oberholser (June 25, 1870 – December 25, 1963) was an American ornithologist. Biography Harry Oberholser was born to Jacob and Lavera S. Oberholser on June 25, 1870, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia University, but did ...

in 1912 for an adult male barbet with a large bill from

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

Island. ''Mezzobucco duvaucelii tanamassae'' was proposed by

Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee (January 4, 1901 – April 24, 1984) was an American ornithologist. He was born in Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , ima ...

in 1929 for a male barbet from the Batu Islands that differed from ''M. d. gigantorhinus'' by a more extensive red colour on the breast. Three black-eared barbet subspecies are recognized as valid

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

since 2014: *''P. d. duvaucelii'' – the nominate subspecies; Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and

Bangka Island Bangka is an island lying east of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is administered under the province of the Bangka Belitung Islands, being one of its namesakes alongside the smaller island of Belitung across the Gaspar Strait. The 9th largest island in ...

*''P. d. gigantorhinus'' – Nias Island, off western Sumatra *''P. d. tanamassae'' – Batu Islands, off western Sumatra

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q21279591 Psilopogon Birds of Malaysia Birds of Sumatra Birds of Borneo Birds described in 1830 Taxa named by René Lesson