"Bulbuls and Barbets are welcome in Sandalwood Plantations" 💚💚💚

Notes on The White-Cheeked Barbet

Why-o-why are They Warmly Welcomed in Sandalwood Plantations?

A Pucock, Pucock, Pucock

Resident Bird Endemic to Western Ghats and Tamil Nadu

Today, for the very first time, we had the luck of spotting the white-cheeked barbet in such close quarters, eating the berries off this tree. [You may want to watch the video HERE]

Well, the White-cheeked Barbet is unique primarily due to a combination of its distinctive markings and its limited geographic range.

Yes, it is endemic to peninsular India, particularly in the Western Ghats and the hills of Tamil Nadu.

Its most defining feature, and the one that gives it its name, is a broad white cheek stripe below the eye and a distinctive white eyebrow stripe.

Like many barbets, it is primarily frugivorous (fruit-eating), especially feeding on figs. This feeding habit makes it a critical seed dispersal agent in its native forests, which is a vital role in the ecosystem.

It is monogamous and highly territorial. They are believed to form pair bonds that last beyond a single breeding season, and they are known to be quite aggressive and territorial when foraging and defending their nest sites from other hole-nesting birds.

Richard Grimmett et al in their book titled, Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, have this to say –

White-cheeked Barbet | Megafaima viridis

23cm

Resident. Western Ghats and hills of Tamil Nadu. ID From Brown-headed by smaller size, shorter brownish bill, bold white cheek patch. 

Voice Call is very similar to Brown-headed’s, a pucock, pucock, pucock. Habits are similar to Brown-headed’s. Very pugnacious when feeding. Often climbs along branches and up trunks like a woodpecker. Broadleaved evergreen and moist deciduous wooded areas, gardens, groves.

From Richard Grimmet’s Birds of the Indian Subcontinent

Salim Ali in his Book of Indian Birds, has an interesting take on the White-cheeked Barbet -

Bulbuls and Barbets are largely responsible for the dissemination of the seeds of the Sandalwood tree in South India and are welcome in Sandalwood plantations. In the newly colonised canal areas of the Punjab, the Mulberry owes its abundance mainly to propagation by birds. 

Experiments have even shown that the seeds of such plants as grow on richly manured soil, after passing uninjured through a bird’s intestine, produced stronger seedlings than those which were cultivated without such advantages,

he observes.  

Sources

Salim Ali’s Book of Indian Birds

Richard Grimmet’s Birds of the Indian Subcontinent