A brightly bristled bird covered in a psychedelic array of colors sporting a conspicuous blue or yellow mustache!

Meet the Versicolored barbet

The versicolored barbet (Eubucco versicolor), is a very colorful species of bird in the Capitonidae family, the New World barbets. A multicolored bird with, like all barbets, a very sturdy bill. Subspecies of this bird differ in their appearance, however, all males have a red face and crown with green to blue-green upperparts. His lower breast is red with yellowish bellies covered in green streaks.

Female birds have green to blue-green upperparts, while their bellies are yellowish with green streaks.

All subspecies are around 6.3 inches long.

The Versicolored Barbet is found in South America, a non-migratory species that live in Bolivia and Peru.

All species of the Versicolored barbet prefer submontane forest with heavy epiphytes and moss, as well as mature secondary forested areas. All three species typically range in altitude between 1,000 to 2,000 meters.

The nominate member of this species has a diet that consists of about 80% fruit and seeds, with the remainder made up mostly of arthropods. It looks for its arthropod prey by poking and tearing through clusters of dead leaves.

Little is known about the breeding process of this species, with nothing known about the subspecies. The nominate species breeds between July and December with one nest being described in a tree hole containing three eggs.

A generally uncommon to rare species, two members are evaluated at Least Concern by the IUCN, with one species, the Blue-chinned barbet being evaluated as Near Threatened. It “could be undergoing a moderately rapid decline…[and] the population may be moderately small”.

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