The miombo pied barbet (''Tricholaema frontata'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Lybiidae The African barbets are birds in the family Lybiidae. There are 43 species ranging from the type genus ''Lybius'' of forest interior to the tinkerbirds (''Pogoniulus'') of forest and scrubland. They are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with t ...

. It is found in south-central Africa.

Taxonomy

The miombo pied barbet was described as ''Pogonorhynchus frontatus'' by Cabanis in 1880. The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Distribution and habitat

This species is found in central Angola, the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Malawi, southwest Tanzania, and Zambia. It is found at elevations of , and the size of its range is estimated at . Its habitat is mainly dense

miombo woodland The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized b ...

, but it has also been observed in more open areas, including degraded woodland and grassy areas with patches of trees.

Description

Its length is approximately , and its weight is . The male and female are alike. The adult has a black head. with a red spot on the forecrown. There is white scalloping on the black nape. The ear coverts are brown, and there are yellow lines over the eyes. The chin and throat are white, with brown or black scalloping. The back is black, with yellow spots. The tail is brown-black, and the undertail is pale brown-grey. The flight feathers are brown, with white inner edges. The inner primaries and the secondaries have white-yellow outer edges. The wing coverts are black-brown, with yellow tips. The scapulars have white spots. The eyes are dark brown. The beak is mostly brown, with a tomial tooth. The legs are grey-brown to grey, and the claws are pale grey. The immature has laxer plumage and does not have a tomial tooth.

Behaviour

Its diet includes insects and fruits. Its song is a series of ''hoop'' notes, and it also produces ''nyah'', ''ddddt'' and ''yeh'' calls. The male has been observed to puff its throat and rotate its head while singing. The nest is a cavity excavated in a tree or stub. The eggs are usually laid from September to December. There are two to three white eggs in a clutch. The incubation period and nestling period are not known. The young are fed insects, and then the parent birds change the food to fruits. The parents remove faeces and seeds. It hybridises with the acacia pied barbet (''Tricholaema leucomelas'') in southwest Zambia.

Status

The population size of this species is not known. Its population is declining because of

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

, but not quickly enough for the species to be considered vulnerable. The species also has a large range, so 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 ...

has assessed the species to be of

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 ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1265457 miombo pied barbet Birds of Southern Africa miombo pied barbet Taxonomy articles created by Polbot