23-3-2017 TAPANTI, COSTA RICA - PRONG BILLED BARBET (Semnornis frantzii)

The prong-billed barbet (Semnornis frantzii) is a distinctive, relatively large-billed bird native to humid highland forest of Costa Rica and western Panama.

The prong-billed barbet is found in the mountains from Costa Rica's Cordillera de Tilarán to western Panama's Veraguas Province. In elevation it mostly ranges between 750 and 2,450 m (2,500 and 8,000 ft) on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, between 1,500 and 1,450 m (4,900 and 4,800 ft) on the Pacific side, and between 1,500 and 2,250 m (4,900 and 7,400 ft) in Panama. (Locally it occurs somewhat lower in both countries.) It inhabits the interior and edges of extremely humid montane evergreen forest, a landscape characterized by many epiphytes and mosses and frequent fog.