Toucan barbet
| Toucan barbet | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| In Mindo, Ecuador | |
| 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]
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Semnornis ramphastinus. |
- ↑ BirdLife International (2012). "Semnornis ramphastinus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
- ↑ Lanyon, Scott M.; Hall, John G (April 1994). "Reexamination of Barbet Monophyly Using Mitochondrial-DNA Sequence Data" (PDF). The Auk 111 (2): 389–397. doi:10.2307/4088602.
- ↑ Restrepo, Carla; Mondragón, Marta Lucy (1998). "Cooperative Breeding in the Frugivorous Toucan Barbet (Semnornis ramphastinus)" (PDF). The Auk 115 (1): 4–15. doi:10.2307/4089106.