Tricholaema leucomelas
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Acacia Pied Barbet sighting in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 167th most-seen of the 220 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, May–June and August
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Acacia Pied Barbet in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–April, July and September–December, the lowest months.
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.
11th of 15
Of the 15 parks where we can rate Acacia Pied Barbet sightings, Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park ranks 11th at under 5%. 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 family: Lybiidae
The closest relatives of the Acacia Pied Barbet that you can see in Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (family Lybiidae, African Barbets) are Crested Barbet (about 40%), Black-collared Barbet (about 20%) and Southern Red-fronted Tinkerbird (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 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park (19 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.
