Lineated Barbet Up Close

© Chuah TC 2017 - Buy this picture

Finally I have managed to capture a decent picture of a Lineated Barbet. This is something that I have been trying to do for quite a long time now. Even better this time, an up close shot. The picture above is a cropped out from a larger 4608 x 3456 sized image (which is available for sale at Dreamstime). I actually took four shots, handheld, and this picture was the best of the lot. Because of my excitement two pictures came out blurry. The bird flew away almost immediately after the fourth shot was taken when it noticed what I was doing. A distance of 15 feet between us is a bit too close for comfort for this bird I suppose.

I am quite sure I have never seen this bird before while growing up in my neighbourhood. Or perhaps I was just not observant enough while I was younger. Anyhow, as far as I could recall, I only became aware of this bird some 3 or 4 years ago. My first impression then was "what a rather ought looking bird with some rather interesting looking plumage around its head and neck". In fact, at one time I had even assumed that it belonged to the Kingfisher family of birds (which it is not, by the way) because of its rather large beak.

Note the rictal bristles, i.e. the 'whiskers' around the base of its beak. This is the second bird that I know of that have them. Brown Shrike is the other one.