Capito
Genus of birds
Capito is a genus of birds in the family Capitonidae. They are found in humid forests in South America, with a single species extending into eastern Panama. Slightly larger than the members of the genus Eubucco, members of the genus Capito are all sexually dimorphic and thickset, and have stubby pale bills that often are tipped black. With the exception of the somewhat aberrant scarlet-crowned barbet, black, red, orange, yellow and white are the dominating colours in their plumage, and males have at least partially black backs. Typically seen singly or in pairs, they are primarily frugivorous, but also take arthropods.
01Taxonomy
The genus Capito was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot to accommodate a single species, the "Tamatia à tête et gorge rouge" that had been described in 1780 by the French naturalist, the Comte de Buffon. This is the black-spotted barbet that had been assigned the binomial name Bucco niger by the German zoologist Philipp Statius Müller in 1776 and is the type species of the genus. The genus name is from Latin capito, capitonis meaning "big-headed".
02Species
The genus contains the following 11 species:
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capito auratus | Gilded barbet | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela | |
| Capito aurovirens | Scarlet-crowned barbet | Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru | |
| Capito brunneipectus | Brown-chested barbet | central Amazon Basin, eastern Amazonas-western Pará states, North Region, Brazil | |
| Capito dayi | Black-girdled barbet | Bolivia and Brazil. | |
| Capito hypoleucus | White-mantled barbet | Colombia | |
| Capito maculicoronatus | Spot-crowned barbet | Colombia and Panama | |
| Capito niger | Black-spotted barbet | northeastern South America, ranging as far south as the Amazon River and as far west as the Branco River | |
| Capito quinticolor | Five-colored barbet | western Colombia and far north-western Ecuador | |
| Capito squamatus | Orange-fronted barbet | western Ecuador and extreme southwestern Colombia | |
| Capito wallacei | Scarlet-banded barbet | south-western Loreto, Peru | |
| Capito fitzpatricki | Sira barbet | eastern Andes of Ucayali Department, Peru |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Capito”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Capito niger - Black-spotted barbet (female); Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil.jpg by Hector Bottai, CC BY-SA 4.0
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