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Coppersmith Barbet

 
Animal Encyclopedia: Coppersmith barbet
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Megalaima haemacephala

TAXONOMY

Megalaima h. haemocephala Muller, 1776. Five subspecies.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Crimson-breasted barbet; French: Barbu à plastron rouge; German: Kupferschmeid; Spanish: Barbudo de Pecho Rojo.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

6.7 in (17 cm); 1.4–1.8 oz (39–52 g). Adult birds are unmistakable. Upperparts are dark green; underparts are pale greenish with broad, dark green streaks and a red band across the upper breast. Forecrown is red; sides of head and throat are yellow; eyestripe and submoustachial stripe are black.

DISTRIBUTION

Peninsular and northern India, northeastern Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to southwestern China, Malaysia, Sumatra, Philippines.

HABITAT

Forest edge, dry deciduous woodland, teak forest, irrigated orchards and plantations with figs and other fruiting trees; also town and city parks, gardens, ornamental trees, and edges of mangroves.

BEHAVIOR

Sings frequently with synchronized jerk of body, bob of head, and flick of tail; throat puffed out and jerk of head gives song a ventriloquial quality: a monotonous "pohp-pohp" or "tonk-tonk"

all day and even on moonlit nights. Sound recalls metallic hammering.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Forages in tree canopy and on fruiting trees, eating figs, pipals, guavas, mangos, and custard apples as well as smaller berries and many insects; taps and chips away bark to reach invertebrates.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Lays 2–4 eggs (usually 3) in hole excavated in tree; both parents incubate for 14 days; chicks fledge after five weeks. Both parents feed chicks but they are abandoned as soon as they fledge, when female begins second brood.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not threatened and very common in most of range.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Frequently heard and well known for its "hammering" song, even in urban areas.

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Wikipedia: Coppersmith Barbet
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Coppersmith Barbet
Kolkata, India
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Megalaimidae
Genus: Megalaima
Species: M. haemacephala
Binomial name
Megalaima haemacephala
Statius Muller, 1776
Synonyms

Xantholaema haemacephala
Bucco indicus

The Coppersmith Barbet, Crimson-breasted Barbet or Coppersmith (Megalaima haemacephala), is a bird with crimson forehead and throat which is best known for its metronomic call that has been likened to a a coppersmith striking metal with a hammer. It is a resident found in South Asia and parts of Southeast Asia. Like other barbets, they chisel out a hole inside a tree to build their nest. They are mainly fruit eating but will take insects.

Contents

Description

Juvenile indica without any red. (Kolkata, India)

This species of barbet is found to overlap in range with larger barbets in most of South Asia. In the Western Ghats, it also overlaps with the Malabar Barbet which has a very similar size and a more rapid call. The red forehead, yellow eye-ring and throat patch with streaked underside and green upperparts, it is fairly distinctive. Juveniles are duller and lack the red patches. The sexes are alike. The Sri Lankan form has more black on the face, more red on the breast and darker streaks on the underside.[2]

Within the Old World Megalaima barbets, they are found to be basal in phylogenetic analyses. Most of the remaining Asian species are more recent in their divergence and speciation.[3]

About nine subspecies are well recognized.

  • nominate haemacephala (P. L. S. Müller, 1776) is found in the Islands of the Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines
  • indica (Latham, 1790) is found in the Indian Subcontinent form northeastern Pakistan and extends into Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Several former supspecies from India are synonymized into indica.

The remaining are island populations in Southeast Asia

Habitat and distribution

Throughout their wide range they are found in gardens, groves and sparse woodland. Habitats with trees having dead wood suitable for excavation is said to be important. Birds nest and roost in cavities.[4]

Pair at Nest in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In the Palni Hills of southern India it is said to occur below 4000 feet.[5] In the Himalayas it is found mainly in the valleys of the outer Himalayas up to 3000 feet. They are rare in the dry desert zones and the very wet forests.[6]

Behaviour and ecology

Keeps solitary, pairs, or small groups; larger parties occasionally on abundantly fruiting Ficus trees. Fond of sunning themselves in the morning on bare top branches of tall trees, often flitting about to sit next to each other. The flight is straight, with rapid flaps.

They compete with other cavity nesting birds and frugivores. Megalaima asiatica have been noted to evict them from their nest holes, while Red-vented Bulbuls have been seen to indulge in kleptoparasitism, pirating berries that the males bring to the female at the nest.[7]

The nest holes are also used for roosting and some birds roost alone in cavities and these often roost during part of the day. Immatures will roost with the parents but often return to roost early so as not to be prevented by the parents from entering the roost cavity.[4]

Vocalization

The call is a loud rather metallic tuk…tuk…tuk (or tunk), reminiscent of a copper sheet being beaten, giving the bird its name. Repeated monotonously for long periods, starting with a subdued tuk and building up to an even volume and tempo, the latter varying from 1.5 to 2 per second.

The beak remains shut during each call - a patch of bare skin on both sides of the throat inflates and collapses with each tuk like a rubber bulb, with much body and tail shaking. Not very vocal in cold weather - a spell of rain or cold immediately silences them, but it is "one of India's most familiar sounds in the hot season"[8].

Diet

in Hyderabad, India.

Prefers Banyan, Peepul, and other wild figs, various drupes and berries, and the occasional insect, caught in aerial sallies.[9][10] Petals of flowers may also be included in their diet.[11] They eat nearly 1.5 to nearly 3 times their body weight in berries each day.[12]

Breeding

Courtship involves singing, puffing of the throat, bobbing of the head, flicking of the tail, ritual feeding and allopreening.[4]

They breed through much of the year with local variation. Both sexes excavate the nest on the underside of a narrow horizontal branch. They may also roost inside the nest holes.[2] Three or four eggs are laid and like in many hole nesting birds the incubation period is not well known but has been estimated to be about 2 weeks. Both sexes incubate. The main nesting season is February to April, prior to the Monsoons but later in southern India and Sri Lanka. Multiple broods may be raised.

Mortality factors

Adult birds are sometimes taken by predatory species. In urban areas, there are records of collisions with structures including white walls.[13] Pesticide poisoning has also been noted.[14]

Other views

Bathing in the rain in Kolkata, West Bengal, India

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Preening in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In nest in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In nest in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Feeding Juvenile at nest in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Adult with Immature in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

Preening in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

In Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

digging nesting whole in Hyderabad, India.

digging nesting whole in Hyderabad, India.

in taking off flight in Hyderabad, India.

in Hyderabad, India.

in Hyderabad, India.

Coppersmith on Ficus Tree


References

  1. ^ BirdLife International (2008). Megalaima haemacephala. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 11 May 2006.
  2. ^ a b Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide.. 2. Smithsonian Institution & Lynx Edicions. 2005. pp. 279–280. 
  3. ^ Moyle, RG (2004). "Phylogenetics of barbets (Aves: Piciformes) based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30 (1): 187–200. 
  4. ^ a b c Lok AFSL & Lee TK (2009). "Barbets of Singapore. Part 2: Megalaima haemacephala indica Latham (Coppersmith Barbet), Singapore's only native, urban barbet." (PDF). Nature in Singapore 1: 47–54. http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2009/2009nis47-54.pdf. 
  5. ^ Dewar, Douglas (1915). Birds of the Indian Hills. John Lane. p. 243. 
  6. ^ Blanford WT (1895). Fauna of British India. Birds. Volume 3. Taylor and Francis. p. 98. http://www.archive.org/details/faunaofbritishin025218mbp. 
  7. ^ Tooth,EE (1901). "Nesting difficulties of the coppersmith.". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 13 (4): 713–714. 
  8. ^ Grewal, Bikram; Bill Harvey and Otto Pfister (2002). Photographic guide to birds of India. Periplus editions.  p. 85
  9. ^ Ali, Salim & Dillon Ripley (1987). Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (Vol 4). Oxford University Press. p. 300. 
  10. ^ Aitken,EH (1893). "The habits of the coppersmith.". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 8 (2): 326–327. 
  11. ^ Bharos,AMK (1997). "Unusual feeding pattern and diet of Crimsonbreasted Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala).". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 94 (2): 411. 
  12. ^ Muthukrishnan,TS; Sundarbabu,Rajeswari (1982). "Feeding habits of Coppersmith Megalaima haemacephala (Muller).". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 79 (1): 197–198. 
  13. ^ Vijayaraghavan,B (1957). "Accidental death of a Crimsonbreasted Barbet [Megalaima haemacephala (Muller)].". J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 54 (2): 462. 
  14. ^ Dhindsa, M.S., J.S. Sandhu, and A.S. Sohi (1986). "Pesticidal mortality of crimson-breasted barbet (Megalaima haemacephala) with a note on its body size.". Bulletin Of The British Ornithologists' Club 106 (3): 93–96. 

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