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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.
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The Prong-billed Barbet, Semnornis frantzii, is a bird of considerable charm, with a robust silhouette and a notably large bill, which is silvery gray to bluish with a dark tip. This bill, featuring a distinctive notch at the tip of the mandible, gives the bird its name. Adults sport a dull golden brown crown, with a brownish olive nape and upper back, transitioning to an olive green lower back, rump, and uppertail coverts. Males are distinguished by a glossy black tuft at the rear of the crown, a feature absent in females. Both sexes share dull slaty black lores, cheeks, and chin, with the sides of their head, neck, and upper breast a buffy olive that turns yellowish on the lower breast. The belly is pale yellow, flanks are a dull grayish with a pale yellowish wash, and the wings are dusky.
This species thrives in the interior and edges of extremely humid montane evergreen forests, a habitat rich with epiphytes, mosses, and frequent fog.
The Prong-billed Barbet is native to the highland forests of Costa Rica and western Panama, ranging in elevation from 750 to 2,450 meters on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, and from 1,500 to 2,250 meters in Panama.
A non-migratory bird, the Prong-billed Barbet is known to forage in flocks of up to 12 outside the breeding season and roost communally in tree cavities. During the breeding season, they exhibit monogamous and territorial behavior.
