Black-browed Barbet

Black-browed Barbet
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Megalaimidae
Genus:	Megalaima
Species:	M. oorti
Binomial name
Megalaima oorti (Müller, 1836)

The Black-browed Barbet or Müller's Barbet (Megalaima oorti) is a bird belonging to the Asian barbet family, Megalaimidae.

It is 20-23.5 cm long. The plumage is mostly green apart from the head which is patterned with blue, yellow and red. There is a black stripe above the eye. The bill is black and the feet are grey-green. The Chinese name for the bird, "five-colored bird" (五色鳥) refers to the five colors seen on its plumage. Because of its colorful plumage and that its call resembles that of a percussion instrument known as a wooden fish, the species is also referred to as the "spotted monk of the forest" in Taiwan.

Black-browed Barbet

It has a scattered distribution in south-eastern Asia. The subspecies M. o. oorti occurs in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. M. o. annamensis is found in eastern Cambodia, southern Laos and south-central Vietnam; it is sometimes treated as a separate species, the Indochinese Barbet. Three further subspecies of Black-browed Barbet are now commonly treated as two separate species: the Chinese Barbet (M. faber) of southern China (M. f. sini in Guangxi and M. f. faber in Hainan) and the Taiwan Barbet (M. nuchalis) of Taiwan.

It inhabits tropical and subtropical forests. It forages in the upper and middle levels of the canopy. It excavates a nest hole in a tree but little else is known about its breeding habits.

Fraser's Hill, Malaysia, Sept 1997

References

• MacKinnon, John & Phillipps, Karen (2000) A Field Guide to the Birds of China. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Robson, Craig (2002) A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia. New Holland, London.