Another favorite bird is the toucan barbet which looks like a patchwork quilt. It is Choco-endemic, found only in the cloud forest of the Andean slopes in western Ecuador and Colombia. It is near-threatened because it has been trapped for the bird trade as well as due to habitat loss. It is more closely related to the toucan than the Old World barbets, but it is not as large as the small toucans, like the toucanets. eBird records 11,274 observations and 913 photos.
It has a heavy yellow bill with black tips, not anywhere as big as a toucan, but heavier than a tanager. It has a red iris; a white stripe behind the eye; a black crown; a gray-blue throat, upper breast and sides of the nape, almost like a long beard; a golden-brown nape that becomes more yellow toward the rump; a red lower breast and mid-belly, a yellowish-green lower belly and blue-gray tail and wings; and light green feet and legs. The female is nearly identical to the male, but is less bright and the tuft on the black plumage of the nape.
Wow, such a beautiful bird, but that red eye is a little disturbing. Seeing it in the wild is so different than seeing it in a cage in someone's home, right? Caging this beauty seems wrong.
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