Naked-faced Barbet Gymnobucco calvus Scientific name definitions

As if caught in an awkward molt, the adult Naked-faced Barbet's head has a wizened "balding" appearance; a look that is shared with most other members of the genus Gymnobucco. It is an average-sized barbet, with brown plumage that is streaked paler both above and below, a characteristically short tail, and bristly tufts of feathers on the chin and either side of the base of the usually pale bill. It is distributed from Liberia and Guinea east to Cameroon and south to northern Angola, with a disjunct population in the uplands of western Angola which has recently been suggested might be better treated as a different species (rather than subspecies). Throughout its range, this barbet seems to be more numerous in second growth than it is in primary forest, although it requires tall, dead trees for nesting; the species will also utilize wooded grassland, nearby plantations, farms and villages with fruiting trees, and even farmbush. Like its close relatives, the Naked-faced Barbet is colonial, often in the company of its congeners, Gray-throated Barbet (Gymnobucco bonapartei) and Bristle-nosed Barbet (Gymnobucco peli), and even Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), with the birds exceptionally forming colonies of up to 250 pairs, but more typically no more than ten pairs, and occasionally solitarily. Its diet principally comprises wild and cultivated fruits, although the species also feeds on arthropods, and commonly on nectar.