121 : Coppersmith Barbet

Coppersmith Barbet - Megalaima Haemacephala

Its been a while since we enjoyed a good Barbet on the Daily Bird. The first Barbet I ever saw was in Sri Lanka and if you want to start with a muse about Barbets, birds and conservation in general read my first Barbet post here. I have refined the name given from Ceylon Small Barbet to Crimson Fronted Barbet - the latin name stays the same.

So it with the greatest of pleasure that I introduce Barbet number 2 out of 82.The Ceylon Small or Crimson Fronted has been "split" from the mainland Coppersmith. The markings are clearly different - with this more predominantly yellow and black face than this green and blue  face.

So what makes a species a distinct species. In these days of DNA it is becoming increasingly easier and perhaps more difficult to tell - its not just a question of markings which can be very similar. In the broadest terms they do not breed together generally but they do ''overlap". If you think about it logically at some point way back both Coppersmith and Ceylon Small had a common ancester - a "concester" from which all Coppersmiths and all Ceyon Small (or more correctly Crimson Fronted) Barbets were descended. The great great grandaddy of the flashy small Indian subcontinent Barbets as it were. Now some of those barbets way back when started to evolve a little differently on the island of Sri Lanka until now you have two distinct bird species that look different. They may even be able to still breed together as a matter of genetics - a bit like parrots or chickens. They just chose under normal circumstances not to - or for the most part dont get a chance.

At what point was a Crimson Fronted Barbet no longer a Coppersmith Barbet and who gets to decide ? I cannot answer that one.

It can be more than markings - it can be behaviours, feeding or rearing. Slowly over the years along with markings they drift apart. Take gulls - its clear that round the world there is a complete ring of gull species starting with Herring gull and moving into Yellow Legged Gull, Caspian Gull and so on  that morph one into the other through several different species in a continual blancmange and ice cream of different species - a big eton mess of interconnected gull species running one into the other - able to cross breed at the margins between species but if the birds from opposite sides of the planet met they probably could not or would not.

The phenomenen has been noted with salamanders in California. They can live in the wet hills but not in the dry valley that runs up that state. It may as well be a big perspex fence. There is a horseshoe of 4 or 5 Salamander species up one side of the valley and then back down the other running one into the other with intemediates. Seperated by a few miles across the valley the close cousins do not interbreed - but they can. Perhaps once in a blue moon an intrepid male salamander makes it across and then all hell breaks loose - a bit like a big dollop of raspberry sauce on your vanilla ice cream making a "pink" salamander species. They can interbreed but under normal circumstances do not get the opportunity.

Thinking logically at some point all humans and all chimpanzees had a common ancester (looking like some other ape) and then for a generation at some point one or the other became more human like - or perhaps more chimp like (lets not be arrogant). Slowly but surely the two strands of apes drifted apart - for a long time they may have been able to interbreed but then either by opportunity or desire they chose not to. Geographic barriers play a big part in this.

When Homo Sapiens made it to Europe they found an earlier species (or parrallel) species of great ape - the Neanderthal. The modern theory is that our stocky big nosed cousins were not wiped out - they were bred out - just subsumed into the great gene pool that is the human race. We hadn't come that far apart at that point even then. The Northern humans well adapted for life in the ice age just gave way to competition or breeding to different humans making there way around the land bridges or across the gibralter straight. No different from the ruddy ducks and white faced ducks these days (the latter being bred out by their american cousins newly arrived and escaped in Europe) but noone was around at the time to put a word in for Neanderthals. If a higher form of being existed back then perhaps they could have set up a reserve for Little Big Nose (I loved those childrens books).

So an adapatation gets the new species across and into the next valley or somehow it gets cut off - it can be as imperceptable as a treecreeper and a short toed treeper. When the land bridge between the UK and the continent came down the treecreepers on ïn Britain started to have longer toes over time. They just do not make that channel crossing and over time they got bigger toes and were not able to get back to shorter toes because of the barrier of geography. I am sure that a French treecreeper and a British treecreeper could interbreed quite happily - they "choose" not to. I often wonder why the British treecreeper is *the* treecreeper and continental Europe's is distinguished by its shorter toes. It seems quite colonial.

Well whatever the science here he or she is is - a Coppersmith Barbet - proudly and obviously not from Sri Lanka - I suspect happy enough in the same cage. Just different and it is wonderful that we now have 82 Barbets.
For these type of musings get stuck into Richard Dawkins - birds dont chose how and where to breed - the enviroment, geography, opportunity all comes together to create this wonderful biodiversity. Try the Ancestors Tale - its as good a place as any to start with Dawkins.

I know a Coppersmith Barbet for a Crimson Fronted Barbet. I remain unsure as to why they are two seperate species - they are and they get seperate pages on the Daily Bird.

Coppersmith Barbet , Megalaima Haemacephala
Bangalore Plains
25 April 2012