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.