Tricholaema leucomelas
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The acacia pied barbet or pied barbet (Tricholaema leucomelas) is a species of bird in the family Lybiidae which is native to southern Africa. The acacia pied barbet was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope region of South Africa. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Bucco leucomelas in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The acacia pied barbet is now placed in the genus Tricholaema that was introduced by the French brothers Jules and Édouard Verreaux in 1855. The generic name combines the Ancient Greek thrix meaning hair and laimos meaning "throat". The specific leucomelas combines the Ancient Greek leukos meaning "white" and melas meaning "black".
Three subspecies are recognised: T. l... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waterberg Plateau Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 2 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Etosha National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 4 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 5 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 8 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 11 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 12 | Moremi Game Reserve | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 13 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 14 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana | |
| 15 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report an Acacia Pied Barbet sighting in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, based on 74 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 92nd most-seen of the 189 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and May
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report an Acacia Pied Barbet in De Hoop Nature Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in April and October–December, the lowest months. June has too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Acacia Pied Barbet sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Acacia Pied Barbet sightings, De Hoop Nature Reserve ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 60%), uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 40%) and Etosha National Park (Namibia, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same order: Piciformes
The closest relatives of the Acacia Pied Barbet that you can see in De Hoop Nature Reserve (order Piciformes, Woodpeckers and Allies) are Knysna Woodpecker (about 20%), Lesser Honeyguide (about 10%) and Cardinal Woodpecker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Acacia Pied Barbet is recorded against all the birds logged in De Hoop Nature Reserve (74 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
