EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Red-and-Yellow Barbet at the Cavity

Red-and-Yellow Barbet (Trachyphonus erythrocephalus versicolor), Family Lybiidae (prev. Capitonidae)
Lake Baringo, Kenya

Explanation:  Not exactly blending into her environment is this female Red-and-Yellow Barbet, checking out her nest cavity.  

Barbets are Old World equivalents of woodpeckers, which also occur in the Old World.  Both types of birds are cavity-nesters, with woodpeckers more often creating hollows in trees.  Here, this barbet has created a typical cavity not in a tree, but in a large termite mound, which must be like trying to hammer through dried concrete.  Termite mounds are key structures in the tropics of the world, supporting a vast array of plant and animal species alike besides their termite "ecosystem engineers."  

Notice how this barbet is using its tail as a structural prop to support itself as it clings to the side of the termite mound, just as woodpeckers use their tail.  

Both types of birds have stiffened central axes (the "shaft") in the tail feathers for this purpose.   

Here, we see both the male (with black forehead) and the female (yellow forehead).

The photos above are of the Red-and-Yellow Barbet subspecies versicolor, which I photographed at Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley of southern Kenya, east Africa.  

The photo to the left here, and below, are of subspecies erythrocephalus, characterized by more red on the side of the head and the male (pictured here) with a black throat patch.

Red-and-Yellow Barbet male, subspecies erythrocephalus, showing the black throat patch and more extensive red on the side of the head.

I photographed this subspecies in the Ngong Hills of south-central Kenya, south of the capital city Nairobi.

It is striking how gaudily marked and colorful is this species,
particularly after pondering the camouflage adaptation of other species!

But that is only how our human eye sees the patterns and colors.

Notice the dappled sunlight on the ground.  The white spots on the
wings and tail of this bird might actually serve to help it blend into
such a background, and the high contrast with its yellow breast
and flanks might serve to break up the body outline, making it
less instantly recognizable as a prey item for some raptor or other predator.

  

Male and female vocalizing together.
Pairs of Red-and-Yellow Barbets are known to duet together.
Listen to a recording I made of this pair duetting.

Notice the tiny bristle hair at the base of the bill.
Barbets are typified by having such a structure, which
are actually modified feathers.