Coppersmith Barbet

Latin Name: 
Megalaima haemacephala
Category: 
Size: 
17cm
Description: 

Sexes alike. Grass-green plumage; yellow throat; crimson breast and forehead; dumpy appearance. The Crimson fronted Barbet M. rubricapillus of the W Ghats, south of Goa, has a crimson chin, throat, foreneck and upper breast. Solitary, in pairs or small parties; strictly arboreal; feeds on fruiting trees, often with other birds; visits flowering Erythrina and Bombax trees for flower nectar; often spends early morning sunning itself on bare branches.

Habitat: 
light forests, groves, city gardens, roadside trees.
Food: 
chiefly fruits and berries; sometimes catches insects.
Distribution: 
all India, up to about 1,800m in outer Himalaya.
Call: 
Call Description: 
noisy between December and end of April; monotonous tuk… tuk… calls one of the best-known bird calls of India, likened to a coppersmith working on his metal.
National Status: