• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Range map
• Resources

Taxonomic note

Eubucco versicolor, E. steerii and E. glaucogularis (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as E. versicolor following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Least Concern
2016	Near Threatened	A2c+3c+4c
2014	Near Threatened	A2c+3c+4c
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type		Average mass	33 g

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	96,200 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	20000-49999 mature individuals	poor	estimated	2020
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2014-2024
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-9%	-	-	-
Generation length	3.1 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified directly. Based on density estimates of a similar-sized congener (E. richardsoni: 8 mature individuals/km² in Peru; Santini et al. 2018) and assuming that only around 10% of the mapped range is occupied, the total population may number c. 49,999 mature individuals. As the species is described as ‘uncommon’ (Stotz et al. 1996), the population size is here tentatively placed in the band 20,000-49,999 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The population trend has not been assessed directly. The only threat known to the species is habitat loss for agricultural purposes (Bird et al. 2011). Forest loss over the past ten years has however been low within the range (4%; Global Forest Watch 2020). The species is strictly forest-dependent and may be susceptible to fragmentation and edge effects, and thus population declines may be higher than forest loss. The species is therefore tentatively suspected to decline at <10% over ten years.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Peru	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Peru	Cordillera de Colán

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Altitude	1000 - 2000 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Blue-cowled Barbet Eubucco steerii. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/blue-cowled-barbet-eubucco-steerii on 18/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 18/01/2025.