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.

It often has been placed with the other barbets in the Capitonidae. However, DNA studies have confirmed that this arrangement is paraphyletic; New World barbets are more closely related to toucans than they are to Old World barbets. As a result, the barbet lineages are considered distinct families; the prong-billed barbet and the toucan barbet now form a separate family, Semnornithidae.

The prong-billed barbet prefers cool, wet, moss-festooned mountain forest with large trees and adjacent habitat.