The prong-billed barbet (''Semnornis frantzii'') is a distinctive, relatively large-billed bird native to humid highland forest of

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and western Panama.

Taxonomy and systematics

The prong-billed barbet was traditionally placed in family

Capitonidae New World barbets are near passerine birds from the family Capitonidae of the order Piciformes, which inhabit humid forests in Central and South America. They are closely related to the toucans. The New World barbets are plump birds, with short ...

'' sensu lato'' with both Neotropic and

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by the ...

barbets. However, morphological, hybridization, and DNA studies have confirmed that this arrangement is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

; New World barbets are more closely related to toucans than they are to

barbets. Therefore New World (Capitonidae ''

sensu stricto ''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...

''), African ( Lybiidae), and Asian (

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 b ...

) barbets were each accorded their own families. The prong-billed barbet and the

toucan barbet The toucan barbet (''Semnornis ramphastinus'') is a barbet native to western Ecuador and Colombia. Along with the prong-billed barbet, it forms the family Semnornithidae, and is closely related to the toucans. It is a medium-sized barbet with a ...

(''Semnornis ramphastinus'') were placed in the new family Semnornithidae. The prong-billed barbet is monotypic. Its

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

commemorates the German naturalist

Alexander von Frantzius Alexander von Frantzius (10 June 1821, in Danzig – 18 July 1877) was a German physician and naturalist. He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Erlangen, Halle and Berlin, where in 1846, he obtained his doctorate.

Description

The prong-billed barbet is long and weighs about . Its bill is silvery gray to bluish with a dark tip; a notch on the tip of the mandible provides its English name. The maxilla has a hooked tip and a notch on the side. Adults have a dull golden brown crown, brownish olive nape and upper back, and olive green lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts. Males have a glossy black tuft of feathers at the rear of the crown; females lack it. Both sexes have dull slaty black lores, cheeks, and chin. The sides of their head, their neck, and their upper breast are buffy olive that becomes yellowish on the lower breast. Their belly's center is pale yellow and their flanks dull grayish with a pale yellowish wash. Their tail is dull green and their wings dusky. Immatures are overall duller than adults and the black areas of the adult's face are grayer in immatures.Buckio, B. (2020). Prong-billed Barbet (''Semnornis frantzii''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.prbbar1.01 retrieved December 15, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The prong-billed barbet is found in the mountains from Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilarán to western Panama's Veraguas Province. In elevation it mostly ranges between on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, between on the Pacific side, and between in Panama. (Locally it occurs somewhat lower in both countries.) It inhabits the interior and edges of extremely humid montane evergreen forest, a landscape characterized by many

epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

s and mosses and frequent fog.

Behavior

Movement

The prong-billed barbet is non-migratory.

Social interaction

In the non-breeding season prong-billed barbets forage in flocks of up to 12 individuals, and roost communally in tree cavities with up to 16 in close association.

Feeding

Prong-billed barbets usually forage in the forest canopy but sometimes do so lower at the edges. Their diet is almost entirely fruit, but young nestlings are fed insects. Small fruits are swallowed whole or only the interior may be squeezed out. Large fruits are torn apart to eat.

Breeding

Prong-billed barbets are monogamous and territorial in the breeding season. Their breeding season begins when pairs court in March and they begin excavating nest cavities in trees about in mid-month. Cavities are sited between above ground. The clutch size is four or five. The incubation period is 14 to 15 days; the time from hatch to fledging is not known. Both parents incubate the eggs and care for nestlings and fledglings.

Vocalization

The prong-billed barbet's song has been described as "a deep ''cwa-cwa-cwa-cwa''...repeated many times" and as "a resonant, far-carrying, rather throaty ''cwa-cwa-cwa-cwa''". Both sexes sing, frequently in duet, and also in a "chorus" by several birds. The species has a variety of calls including "low, dry rattling notes", " a nasal, squalling ''kwaaaah'', and "a ''skurr''; bark-like ''chuk'' notes; and an alarm cackle."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the prong-billed barbet as being of Least Concern. It has a small range, but its estimated population of between 20,000 and 50,000 mature individuals is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. "It is common within its range...and occurs in several parks and reserves in Costa Rica."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q794172

prong-billed barbet The prong-billed barbet (''Semnornis frantzii'') is a distinctive, relatively large-billed bird native to humid highland forest of Costa Rica and western Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The prong-billed barbet was traditionally placed in fam ...

Birds of the Talamancan montane forests