Green Barbet (Stactolaema olivacea) [XC72990]
by Martin St-Michel from Diani, coastal province, Kenya (call)
Green Barbet (Stactolaema olivacea) [XC516643]
by Louis A. Hansen from Suni camp, Chita Forest, southern Udzungwa Scarp, Tanzania (call)
Subspecies
Sometimes placed in monospecific genus Cryptolybia, but differences in morphology, plumage and some vocalizations are minimal and generally considered quite insufficient to warrant generic separation. Subspecies woodwardi sometimes treated as full species, but its features are shown to some degree in other subspecies, and they are vocally identical.
Proposed subspecies hylophona included within woodwardi, though tending towards northern subspecies.
The following 5 subspecies are recognised:
olivacea (Shelley, 1880) - South-eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania.
howelli (Jensen & Stuart, 1982) - Udzungwe and Mahenge Mts, in central Tanzania.
rungweensis (Benson, 1948) - Highlands of south-western Tanzania and northern Malawi.
woodwardi Shelley, 1895 - Disjunctly in south-eastern Tanzania (Rondo Plateau) and Natal (Ngoye Forest). Considered by some authors to be a distinct species, Woodward's Barbet (Stactolaema woodwardi).
BirdLife International Species Factsheet