The tinkerbirds or tinker barbets are the genus Pogoniulus in the African barbet family Lybiidae. The genus was formerly included in the family Capitonidae and sometimes in the family Ramphastidae. Tinkerbirds are widely distributed in tropical Africa.
Taxonomy The genus Pogoniulus was introduced in 1842 by the French ornithologist Frédéric de Lafresnaye with "Le Barbion mâle" Levaillant, that is Bucco pusillus Dumont, 1805, as the type species, now the southern red-fronted tinkerbird. The genus name is a diminutive of the name Pogonias that had been introduced in 1811 by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. Pogonias is from the Ancient Greek πωγωνιας/pōgōnias meaning "bearded".
The genus contains 10 species: Image Common name Scientific name Distribution Speckled tinkerbirdPogoniulus scolopaceus Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Uganda.Green tinkerbirdPogoniulus simplexKenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.Moustached tinkerbirdPogoniulus leucomystax Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. Western tinkerbirdPogoniulus coryphaea Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda. Red-rumped tinkerbirdPogoniulus atroflavus Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.Yellow-throated tinkerbirdPogoniulus subsulphureus Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Yellow-rumped tinkerbirdPogoniulus bilineatusAngola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Northern red-fronted tinkerbirdPogoniulus uropygialisEritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia to southeast Sudan, Uganda and southeast Tanzania Southern red-fronted tinkerbirdPogoniulus pusillusSouthern Mozambique and eastern South Africa Yellow-fronted tinkerbirdPogoniulus chrysoconus Africa south of the Sahara Desert
Supposed fossil remains of Late Miocene tinkerbirds were found at Kohfidisch (Austria)Mlíkovský (2002) but are not yet thoroughly studied. It is not clear whether they belong to an extant genus, but given the late date this may well be so.
Footnotes
References Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002): Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe. Ninox Press, Prague. PDF fulltext