Black-spotted Barbet

About the Black-spotted Barbet

The black-spotted barbet (Capito niger) is a species of bird in the family Capitonidae, the New World barbets. It is found in Brazil, the Guianas, and Venezuela. The black-spotted barbet was formally described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Statius Müller under the binomial name Bucco niger. Müller based his account on the "Tamatia à tête et gorge rouge" from Cayenne that had been described in 1780 by the French naturalist, the Comte de Buffon. The specific epithet niger is Latin meaning "black". The black-spotted barbet is now placed with ten other species in the genus Capito that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

Until the late 20th century, the black-spotted barbet was considered to be a conspecific with the widespread gilded barbet (Capito auratus). The black-spotted, gilded, and brown-chested barbets (C. brunneipectus) apparently form a superspecies.

The black-spotted barbet is 16 to 19 cm (6.3 to 7.5 in) long and weighs 41 to 68 g (1.4 to 2.4 oz). It is intricately colored, with much variation in the richness of the colors. The adult male has a red... Wikipedia →