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The Red-Crowned Barbet

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Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Megalaimidae
Genus:	Psilopogon
Species:	P. rafflesii
Binomial name
Psilopogon rafflesii (Lesson, 1839)
Synonyms
Megalaima rafflesii

The Red-Crowned Barbet (Psilopogon rafflesii) is part of one of the two subfamilies of Megalaimidae birds. There are about 30 species of Asian Barbet, where 20 live in Southeast Asia. The Red-Crowned Barbet sits in the order of woodpeckers (Piciformes) and their relatives.  The family is found to inhabit Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand.  A few of their relatives are Megalaima rafflesia bilitionis from Belitung and Mendanau Island, Megalaima rafflesia borneensis from Borneo  and Megalaima refflesii malayensis of southern Mayannmar to the Malay peninsula . Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and plantations with a breeding distance of 3,180 000km²

Description

The Red-Crowned Barbet is a medium-large tropical bird, at 24.5–27 cm (9.6–10.6 in) in length and 99–150 grams (3.5–5.3 ounces) in weight. Both sexes are primarily green, with a red crown, red spots below the eyes, and a red mark on the side of the neck. The barbet wears a blue throat and broad supercilia accompanied by a black and yellow face. To differentiate the Red-Crowned Barbet from a similar species The red-throated barbet (Psilopogon mystacophanos), look for the complete red crown and blue line over its eye with a yellow face patch. The immature species and females resemble males with a duller colour scheme called monomorphism . Each possesses a parrot-sized bill to peck insects from trees and collect various fruits.

Taxonomy

The Red Crowned Barbet belongs to the woodpecker order Piciformes in the family of Psilopogon. The lineage of the Barbet family can be tracked to America, Asia and Africa. They separate into the New World (Americas) and the Old World (Asia and Africa) Barbets. Such genus of the Americas is the Semnornis, which diverged before the Gilded Barbets (Capito auratus) and Red-headed barbets (Eubucco), species that are represented as sister clades. In Africa, the Yellow Billed Barbets (Trachyphonus) diverged before the white headed barbets (Lybius), which diverged at a similar time as the Bristle nosed barbets (Gymnobucco) and their sister genus white eared barbet Stactolaema. The Pogoniuluss appears to be the last species to have diverged. In the Asian genus, Calorhamphus diverged first leaving Meglaima and Psilopogon as sister clades. Further research has been drawn on the Red-Crowned Barbet's relationships with different species. Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA sequencing have found the barbet families and toucan families to be strongly related to one another.

Habitat and Distribution

The Red-Crowned Barbet inhabits the Sundaic lowlands of south Tensserim, Myanmar, peninsular Thailand, Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Kalimantan and Sumatra, Indonesia and Brunei. The Red Crowned Barbert spends its days flying about the lower forest canopies of secondary and primary-growth forests. Farmers have seen them fly through rubber and durina (Durio zibethinus) plantations in search of food. Ornithologist believe they coast through sloped forests and evergreen lowlands, where they do not migrate from. Given the deforestation in Singapore, the Barbets have been restricted to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a mature secondary and primary forest.

Behaviour

Non Vocal

The Red Crowned Barbet spends its time in groups of its kind of up to 5 birds. They tend to be seen foraging with one another while never leaving a radius of 0.25km². Some experiments were conducted on a similar species called the Green Barbet (Stactolaema olivacea) where they listened to a playback of its voice. The scientists saw bill whipping with audible tapping while hitting the bark, accompanied by wing fluttering and noise-wearing movements. They have also been seen allopreening or grooming one another, while perched on tree branches .

Vocal

The barbet uses a series of different movements and calls for several reasons. The wing flutter is a quick series of beats of the wings to signal a threat is nearby or perhaps after an attack has come. The bill whipping sounds echo small clicks of its beak accompanied by a rapid scrape or whip of its bill over a branch. They tend to make these calls towards other male barbets as a ritual threat display or to display a pecking order within the group. The Chowp Call marks the staple for the Red-crowned barbet call amongst the sounds of the forest. It begins with a loud "oop" accompanied by a "owp chow", "chowp,choop,chee-owp". They may be heard at different speeds, for example, at 0,2 to 0,7 notes during 0.7 to 0.135 seconds. A Chuk call may accompany the Chowp call but at a faster pace of 0.3 to 0.5 seconds with a frequency of 1 to 3Hz while trailing off. From what scientists have discovered, the Chowp call is associated with a harmonious call in the form of a duet between a female and male during the mating season.

Diet

The Red Crowned Barbet feeding on fruits

The Red-Crowned Barbet spends its time in the lowland rainforest canopy, flying from tree to tree. They can be seen feeding on the lower fruit canopy and vines in the Pasoh Forest in Negeri Sembilan, and Peninsular Malaysia. They also forage on crown canopy fruits such as figs of the Malayan Banyan tree (Ficus microcarpa) in Tama Negara to which their long thick beak makes quick work to open the fig. They also consume a variety of fruit from oil fruits, MacArthur’s palm, fishtail palm, turn-in-the-wind (Mallotus paniculatus), wild cinnamon (Cinnamomum iners) and salam (Syzygium polyanthum). They have also been noted for the spreading of seeds from pre-digested fruits. After consuming the fig, they regurgitated them, dropping them on the forest floor. They provide a source of seed spreading for the fig tree.  They may also defend their feeding territory from other barbets such as the Brown Barbet (Caloramphus fuliginosus) , creating niche partitioning amongst the fig trees. A prey of Red-Crowned Barbet includes land snails of the genus Amphidromus.^[2] The Red-Crowned Barbets beak shape is also excellent for foraging for grubs, termites, mantis, moths, katydids and ants. They excavate rotten wood to grab a peak full of the grubs. They have been known to follow mixed species of insectivores and passerines foraging for food in the lower canopy. Essentially, they steal prey or forage in the same area for a chance at undiscovered food lurking in the dead wood. In Singapore, the Green Coffee Tree (Canthium glabrum) is classified as endangered because of the foraging from the Red crowned Barbet.

Reproduction

The breeding season for the barbets begins in April and ends in May for a total of 36 days. Before the courtship begins, the barbets release several loud and constant calls during the morning and evenings consisting of “kotroo kotroo” by the female and "kurro kuroo" by the male. Once a female has found a male, the courtship can begin. The male perches next to the female and begins to preen her feathers. If she accepts, the male flies off in search of insects and fruits. He returns and passes the food to the female to eat. After 10-20 minutes of this, the female initiates the coupling by using soft churning calls. She swings her tail horizontally, fluffs her feathers and pulls down her wings slightly . The newly paired birds will work together on building a nest.

The pair choose a specific dead tree to begin pecking a hole about 20-30ft above the ground. Scientists believe the position of the hole faces the south to protect the nests from the monsoon rains. As they begin pecking, bits of wood and dust are taken out by their beaks and tossed to the ground. Their nest is about 30 cm in depth with a smooth chamber at the bottom for the eggs. Entering their nest, they would pass through a tunnel of 4.5 cm in diameter before there is a slight drop towards the chamber, where it widens to about 16 cm. The smooth walls of the bowl mean the red-crowned barbet does not need any nesting material. Once the nest is complete, the female can lay her eggs.

The female lays an average of 3 glossy white, elongated with an oval shaped end eggs. The average size of the eggs tends to be 26.20mm x 20.30 mm. The pair would exchange roles of incubating the eggs every 20 to 30 minutes for 14-15 days. Once the eggs hatch, the pair begin collecting food for the chicks. They would pass food directly to the chicks and take the fecal sacs out of the nest, keeping it clean. Once the younglings reach adolescence, based on the dull colorations on their forehead, the male and female would feed them from the entrance of the nest . May approaches and the red-crowned barbet chicks begin to fledge.

Extinction Status

The species of Red crowned barbet has lost a significant amount of its population. They have succumbed to losses by deforestation of old and new growth evergreen forests across Indonesia and Malaysia.They have taken to nesting urban settings, such as on electric and lamp posts in the face of the habitat loss.  Therefore, the IUCN (international union of conservation of nature) have given the species a Near Threatened staple status.

Interesting Links

Song of a Red-Crowned Barbet https://xeno-canto.org/821894