Voice
Various calls including a churring, screechy 'keeah' and loud territorial 'kay-oh', repeated regularly at one-second intervals. Also a mournful 'peeao-peeao-peeao-peeao-peeao-...'.
Great Barbet (Psilopogon virens) [XC31560]
by vir joshi from Pokhara, Fishtail Lodge area, Nepal (duet, song)
Great Barbet (Psilopogon virens) [XC547434]
by Dhruba Saikia from Yellow-rumped Honeyguide spot (30.49031,79.08512), Uttarakhand, India (call)
Subspecies
Related to Red-vented Barbet (Psilopogon lagrandieri), but not very closely. Subspecies weakly to moderately marked. Indochinese birds, described as subspecies indochinensis, now considered indistinguishable from nominate. Birds of Mishmi Hills (north-eastern Assam) formerly recognized as subspecies mayri, but inseparable from clamator.
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
marshallorum (Swinhoe, 1870) - North-eastern Pakistan and north-western India east to western Nepal.
magnifica Stuart Baker, 1926 - Eastern Nepal east to central Assam.
clamator (Mayr, 1941) - North-eastern Assam, northern Myanmar, south-western China (western Yunnan) and north-western Thailand.
virens (Boddaert, 1783) - Central Myanmar and south-eastern China south to north-central Thailand and northern Vietnam.