Crested Barbet
Trachyphonus vaillantii
Woodland. Bill pale yellow; head and underparts yellow with red spotting; above black with white feather edges.
Barbets, Tinkerbirds
LC
Not Endemic
Description
Common resident. Well-known barbet with characteristic yellow-and-black plumage. Red scaling on the head is variable and less profuse in females and immatures. The call is a distinctive trilling like a muffled alarm clock ‘trrrrrr…’, which sometimes continues for long periods. Call is louder, slower and of higher pitch when expressing agitation ‘ke-ke-ke-ke-kek…’; female calls ‘puta-puta-puta-puta…’. Found in well-wooded savanna, riverine forest and bushveld. Attracted to fruit in suburban gardens.
Quick Facts
Size
23 cm - M
Names
A: Kuifkophoutkapper
Z: isiqhvana
Ss: Mmadiwatjhe
G: Haubenbartvogel
Bird Family
Stout-billed, robust and often colourful relatives of the woodpeckers, with loud, characteristic calls. They feed on fruits and insects and excavate nest-holes in trees. The smaller species are called tinkerbirds from the likeness of their calls to the metallic sound of a hammer on an anvil. Immatures are duller than adults.
Distribution
Gallery
Behaviour
Breeding
Habitat
Found in well-wooded 'savanna', riverine 'forest' and bushveld.
