Psilopogon monticola
Silhouette: Vijay Cavale (photo), John E. McCormack, Michael G. Harvey, Brant C. Faircloth, Nicholas G. Crawford, Travis C. Glenn, Robb T. Brumfield & T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The mountain barbet (Psilopogon monticola) is a species of bird in the family Megalaimidae. It is endemic to the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.
They resemble female red-throated barbet - except, they have smaller bills and lack the red spot at the base of the rictal bristles ("whiskers") on each side of the upper bill. Mountain barbets primarily feed on fruits, but will also eat a wide range of insects, such as ants, cicadas, dragonflies, crickets, locusts, beetles, moths and mantids.
These birds nest in tree holes and hens usually lay 2 to 4 eggs, which are incubated for 13 to 15 days. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kinabalu Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mountain Barbet sighting in Kinabalu Park on a given day, based on 374 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 58th most-seen of the 247 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.
March and December
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Mountain Barbet in Kinabalu Park on a given day, against under 5% in November, the lowest month.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mountain Barbet sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Kinabalu Park, in our data
Kinabalu Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Mountain Barbet sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Psilopogon
The closest relatives of the Mountain Barbet that you can see in Kinabalu Park (genus Psilopogon, Typical Asian Barbets) are Golden-naped Barbet (about 60%) and Gold-whiskered Barbet (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mountain Barbet is recorded against all the birds logged in Kinabalu Park (374 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.
