Cannundrums: Black-Breasted Barbet

In Kidepo Valley NP ("KVNP") in northeastern Uganda my granddaughter and I were with our guide, William, and a ranger, Zachary, driving from the Narus Valley toward the Kidepo Valley following a rainy day that had made a mess of the dirt roads in that region. Zachary spotted some black-breasted barbets and told me to take as many pictures as I could, because if I posted the pictures in the U.S. it would cause people to visit KVNP.

From the faint black marks on the white flanks we can tell that the bird on the left is a female and the bird on the right is a male.

The Wikipedia article on it is quite short. It states that its range is largely in South Sudan, but known from Zakouma NP in Chad where birders go to search for it. Birds of the World has only four photos posted, lists 149 observations, 77 photos, 1 recording and 2 videos. It lists the distribution as southern Chad, northeastern Central African Republic, southwestern Sudan, western and central South Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda. "It is one of the least known of all barbets; no information on numbers, probably uncommon...ecology and breeding biology very poorly known..." The eBird range map shows the actual observations from ebirders is very heavily located in northern Uganda and even more so in southern South Sudan.

This range map of the black-breasted barbet is from Birds of the World.

Males are glossy black, except for a white patch on the lower back, a red belly, and a white patch on each flank. It has black hair-like feathers around the base of the bill and out over the nostrils. Facial skin around the eye is blue to gray and it has brown eyes. Its bill is toothed with grooves on the side. Females have small black streaks or spots on the white flank patches.

The white patch on the lower back is visible on the male to the right. The toothed bill with grooves on the side is visible on both. The female on the left has good view of red belly and white flank patches.