| Toucan Barbet | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Semnornithidae |
| Genus: | Semnornis |
| Species: | S. ramphastinus |
| Binomial name | |
| Semnornis ramphastinus (Jardine, 1855) |
|
The Toucan Barbet, Semnornis ramphastinus, is a distinctive bird found in humid forests growing on the west Andean slopes in north-western Ecuador and south-western Colombia. While it remains fairly common locally, it has declined due to habitat loss and trapping for the cage-bird trade.
In the past, it has been grouped with the other barbets in the Capitonidae. However, DNA studies have confirmed that this arrangement is paraphyletic; the New World barbets are more closely related to the toucans than they are to the Old World barbets.[2] As a result, the barbet lineages are now considered to be distinct families, and the Toucan Barbet, together with the Prong-billed Barbet, is now placed into a separate family, Semnornithidae.
The Toucan Barbet is unusual among frugivorous birds in that it breeds cooperatively, with several helpers aiding the dominant breeding pair with incubation and raising the young.[3]