Golden-throated Barbet
Psilopogon franklinii
Large green barbet with a broad black bandit’s mask, a pale gray face, and a black-and-yellow crown. Yellow-orange throat patch is small and sometimes missed when seen poorly. Like most other barbets, sluggish and difficult to see, usually encountered foraging quietly or sitting still in the canopy. Song is usually a long steady series of loud hiccupping two-syllabled hoots, but these sometimes sound more plaintive and whistled.
Identification
The golden-throated barbet is vivid green above with paler yellowish-green plumage below, deep blue wings and verditer underneath the tail. Its bill is dusky black, and it is black around the eyes. Its forehead is crimson and its throat orange. Its legs are greenish.It is 20.5–23.5 cm (8.1–9.3 in) long and weighs 50–101 g (1.8–3.6 oz).
Taxonomy
Bucco franklinii was the scientific name proposed by Edward Blyth in 1842 who described a vivid green barbet with a golden throat collected in Darjeeling.It was placed in the genus Megalaima proposed by George Robert Gray in 1842 who suggested to use this name instead of Bucco. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the following golden-throated barbet zoological specimens were described:<p>Molecular phylogenetic research of barbets revealed that the birds in the genus Megalaima form a clade, which also includes the fire-tufted barbet, the only species placed in the genus Psilopogon at the time. Barbets formerly placed in this genus were therefore reclassified under the genus Psilopogon.Two golden-throated barbet subspecies are recognised as of 2014:
- Scientific name
- Psilopogon franklinii
- Authority
- (Blyth, 1842)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Megalaimidae
- Genus
- Psilopogon
Range and habitat
The golden-throated barbet is resident in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam and mainland China. Its presence in Bangladesh is uncertain. It inhabits tropical and subtropical moist forests at elevations of 900 to 2,700 m (3,000 to 8,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The male's territorial call is a very loud pukwowk.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds

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Tiny hummingbird that is gray and green above and gray below. Like other coquettes it has a white bar across the rump. Males are astonishingly pretty with an orange crest, a ruff of white and green feathers on the neck, and a red bill with a black tip. Females have a white belly, and spotted throat, lacking the male’s crest and orange bill. Found at forest edges, in second growth habitats and in wooded savanna.

Ornate Fruit-Dove
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A fruit dove primarily of foothill forest but wanders to lowland and montane forest. Two very different races. Dark red-capped race from the Bird’s Head of New Guinea, and yellow-green capped further east. Note the white band from the bill around the back of the neck and clay-colored chest. Similar to Pink-spotted Dove, but Ornate Fruit-Dove has a dark red wedge on the shoulder and yellow tip to the tail. Voice a slow but accelerating series of rising “woop” notes, similar to that of Pink-spotted but not as fast.

Brown Tanager
Orchesticus abeillei
Large and rather uncommon tanager found in the canopy of humid forests where it usually accompanies mixed-species flocks. Plain brown overall with a cinnamon face, wings, and tail and a dark mask running through the eyes. Its plumage mimics the Buff-fronted Foliage-gleaner, with which it is easily confused and it may even occur in the same flock, but note the tanager’s thicker bill. The thin rising song is very high-pitched.
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