Red-headed Barbet male.

The Barbets are a gorgeous family of birds.  They are bold and stocky and perhaps the epitome of a tropical bird with their bright colours and liking for fruit.  I have been lucky enough to photograph four different species including the amazing Brown-headed Barbet in Sri Lanka and I even found them using a hole in an old coconut tree to nest.  

Red-headed Barbet female.

On my recent trip to Ecuador, I saw and photographed the Red-Headed Barbet, in this species the male and females look like totally different species.  Both of these Barbet species have a fondness for banana which is odd in the case of the Ecuadorian bird because banana isn't a fruit that grows in the higher altitudes where they are found!

Brown-headed Barbet.