Description
This species of barbet is found to overlap in range with several larger barbets in most of South Asia. In the Western Ghats, it partly overlaps with the Malabar Barbet which is of a very similar size but having a more rapid call. The red forehead, yellow eye-ring and throat patch with streaked underside and green upperparts, it is fairly distinctive. Juveniles are duller and lack the red patches. The sexes are alike. The Sri Lankan form has more black on the face, more red on the breast and darker streaks on the underside.
During the nesting season, the wear and tear on the feathers can cause the plumage of the upper back to appear bluish.
Within the Old World Megalaima barbets, they are found to be basal in phylogenetic analyses. Most of the remaining Asian species are more recent in their divergence and speciation.
About nine subspecies are well recognized.
- nominate haemacephala (P. L. S. Müller, 1776) is found in the Islands of the Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines
- indica (Latham, 1790) is found in the Indian Subcontinent form northeastern Pakistan and extends into Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Several former supspecies from India are synonymized into indica.
The remaining are island populations in Southeast Asia
- delica (Parrot, 1907) Sumatra
- rosea (Dumont, 1816) Java
- homochroa Dziadosz & Parkes, 1984 from Tablas
- celestinoi Gilliard, 1949 from Catanduanes, Biliran, Samar, Leyte
- intermedia (Shelley, 1891) from Panay, Guimaras, Negros
- cebuensis Dziadosz & Parkes, 1984 from Cebu
- mindanensis Rand, 1948 from Mindanao
Read more about this topic: Coppersmith Barbet
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