By BRUCE MUNRO
THE white eared barbet is only found in South Africa from Amanzimtoti northwards along the KZN coastal belt and into Mozambique.
Barbets like coastal, evergreen forest and riverine woodlands.
Their call is a high pitched ‘kreep, kreep, kreep – krip, krip, krip’. They are found in pairs or small groups.
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Flight is straight and fast and they often hawk moths in flight. Fruit and insects are also their feeding preference.
These barbets roost communally in the holes of dead trees and one may find up to 11 birds in one hole. The breeding season is from October to January which is when they lay three to six white eggs in a nest excavated in dead trunks and branches.
Incubation is unrecorded and they are nestlings for 35 days.
The Zulu name is iNtunjana and in Afrikaans, die witoorhoutkapper.
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